Pride and Love
by Sakura Ani
Summary: This is basically a spoof of the story of Mulan, but not exactly a parody, just the concept and ideas. I've put my own little twist into it. Anyways... It's mainly Taiora with other couples.
1. The Draft

Author's Note: I was reading a Cinderella fic when this idea came to mind. Believe me, I don't know how I went from Cinderella to this either, but that's how my brain functions. Scary, huh?

Anyways... this is a fic based on the story of Fa Mulan. If you've seen Mulan, you should be able to see a couple similarities in this fic and the movie. I've just added my own little twist into it, so it's not exactly like the movie. If you've read my profile, then you should be able to figure out what couplings I've decided to put into this. I'm not going to ruin it by telling... But I will say that I will only put Tai and Sora together. And so there's one of the couples in the story. There isn't very much romance in this first part, but it will be coming soon. And the names of the adults... all totally made up because I don't know what all their parents names are. So please no flames about that... Some of the names are kinda stupid, but that's only because I just pulled them out of my vat of ideas...

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. That was easily said.

The Kingdom Tachikawa on the Continent of Liyira has been at peace for over twenty years looming over it's neighboring kingdoms of Ishida and Takaishi. But the knowledge of this peaceful kingdom attracts many large pillaging clans and pirates across the ocean, believing that the peaceful kingdoms would most likely be the easiest to overthrow; though none have ever succeeded in crossing the vast ocean to reach the continent.

To add on to the desire of pirates and clans to reach this beautiful continent which embeds the elegant Mount Mihiroshi and Mount Jyoto, the kingdoms would soon be holding a large celebration: The Princess of Kingdom Tachikawa is to be wed to the Prince of Kingdom Ishida.

And so, peace and happiness continues to remain on the Continent of Liyira... but nothing is ever forever...

A young soldier hurried toward the Kingdom Tachikawa's front line base located along the front wall of the Tachikawa Market Square, the city at the base of the huge palace. As the messenger between kingdoms, he held in his hand a small white envelope which contained an urgent message which would soon lead to the ending of the twenty year long peace of the kingdoms. As the letter was handed to the front line General Kamiya, he immediately set off with a few of his best men, a close friend and his son to meet with the royal Tachikawa family.

The infamous Kirik Clan from across the ocean were now fast approaching the Continent of Liyira. The kingdoms would soon be entering a full out battle and war...

~*~*~*~

"Sora!" the red-headed sixteen year old boy called up to his friend, "Please come down. If you hurt yourself, your father's going to be angry. He'd have my head for not watching after you." Koushiro Izumi, whom was called Izzy by his friends for short, watched his neighbor and close friend as she secured her footing at the almost highest branch in the largest tree of Mount Mihiroshi.

"Watching after me?" the auburn haired seventeen year old scoffed, "If anything, I'm the one watching out for you. Besides, I'll be fine. It's not the first time I've climbed a tree." Sora Takenouchi stretched her hand out as far as she could and tugged at the kite lightly allowing it to float freely to the ground.

"Okay, it's down now," Izzy picked up the kite, "Now get down here." He studied his new toy to make sure it wasn't ruined. He and his father had been working on this kite for weeks and as soon as it was finished, he dragged his closest friend out to a clearing on Mount Mihiroshi to fly it. But the wind had unexpectedly shifted and the next thing the two knew, the kite had found itself landing in the largest tree on the mountain.

"I don't see what the hurry is," she teased, "I rather like it up here." She chuckled at her younger friend as a look of exasperation came over him. She smiled down at him, "Alright, Koushiro, I'll come down. But only so you'll stop pestering-" She had taken a step to a lower branch and to her surprise, it cracked and gave out. She gasped aloud as her body plunged toward the ground.

"Oh no, Sora!" Izzy cried out. He watched helplessly not knowing what he should do when his friend slipped. But his attention was soon set on a figure that had rushed passed him.

Sora squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself, waiting for the rough and probably hurtful landing. To her surprise, the landing was rather comfortable; a strong pair of arms had caught her just as she neared the ground. She slowly opened up her eyes and looked up, immediately captivated by the chocolate brown eyes staring at her.

"Are you alright, Miss?" a masculine yet soothing voice spoke to her from this young adolescent boy, who looked about her age.

Sora nodded, "Thank you, Sir." She continued to look deep into his warm and inviting eyes and studied his boyish cute facial features and a mass of messy brown hair atop his head.

"Sora," Izzy hurried over to her side as she was lowered back onto her feet, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," Sora said still not taking her eyes away from her savior.

"A young lady, such as yourself, should not be climbing trees," an older voice spoke snapping Sora out of her trance. On the dirt trail, sitting high up on a tall white horse, was an older man dressed in the royal kingdom's war attire. Beside him were others dressed much like himself, but with not as much armory or air of authority. He spoke to the young boy who had caught Sora, "Come on Taichi, we have more families to visit before dark."

Taichi Kamiya nodded to his father, turned and flashed Sora a handsome lopsided grin- one that had made many maidens of the land melt in desire- after she voiced her thanks again, and then mounted his horse to ride away with the rest of the soldiers.

"I believe he's gone now," Izzy said smirking at Sora, "You can quit gawking."

"I wonder what's going on," Sora seemed oblivious to Izzy's teasing, "They're soldiers right?"

"Didn't you hear about the news?" Izzy asked, "The Kirik Clan was spotted approaching the continent. It'll only be a matter of days, actually approximately seven to ten days, before they reach our kingdom. If you count about two or three hours of rest each day for the daily necessities, it'll probably take them a little more than ten days. But I hear the Kirik Clan is pretty strong and can go on days without sleep. But you know, that's almost impossible. No one can really go on days without sleep. Those who do, end up hallucinating-"

"Izzy," Sora crossed her hands, "get to the point, will you?" But as she said that, she already guessed what was going to be said.

"Well, His Majesty of Tachikawa has called a draft of all young men, ages fourteen to forty, I believe, who are still capable of fight," Izzy said, "That was General Kamiya from the Kamiya family of the royal army. They've served the king since-"

"Izzy, I don't need to know about the Kamiya family background," Sora said rolling her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, sorry," Izzy said sheepishly, "Well, General Kamiya was just coming by here to hand out draft letters to all eligible young males of every family. If you receive a draft letter and you sign up, you have to show up at training camp soon, if necessary. If you don't need to go to training camp, then you go directly out to the front and prepare for battle. The thing is, you have to show up with the draft letter, or you're turned away. I don't know why they do that. If they need all the help they can get... Which reminds me, I'll need to go home and-" Izzy looked around and saw that Sora had already dashed off toward her home. She needed to get home quick. If General Kamiya had already passed by her own house, there was the biggest possibility that her father would be leaving in a few days to join the rest of the experienced soldiers at the front. Nothing would be stopping him from going. Not even old age nor a crippled leg that he could easily hide from the recruiting soldiers.

"No, you can't go!" Sora cried, "You can't. You're in no condition to-"

"It is not your place to be telling me what not to do," her father snapped, "I am the head of the household here." Ruki Takenouchi gave a warning look at his daughter.

"Listen to your father Sora," Norico Takenouchi poured a cup of hot tea into her husband's cup.

"But Mama," Sora began. She got another warning look from her father and looked down. She mumbled under her breath, "It's too dangerous. You shouldn't be going, Papa."

Her father's face softened. She smiled sweetly at his beloved daughter, "Sora. I know you are worried for my well-being. But you know that I must do this. The Takenouchi family has served His Majesty with pride for years. This time is no exception. I know you understand."

Sora nodded, "But Papa..." She knew that there was no way of talking her father out of going into battle if necessary. It was true. The Takenouchi family had served Kingdom Tachikawa for many generations, one after another. But this time, there was an exception. Norico Takenouchi was yet to bear a male child for the Takenouchi family. This being the case, the family was unable to send a son off to serve for the royal family and so Ruki would be leaving to serve in battle to maintain the Takenouchi pride.

Even so, Ruki and Norico Takenouchi still showed love and pride for their only daughter, Sora, who turned out to be a very bright and adorable young girl. The only problem was that she was a very tomboyish young girl. Nothing like a young lady at all. They worried for her each day as she became less and less lady-like which was not a good thing if she was to find a husband someday.

"No more, Sora," her father said, "I've made up my mind."

Sora nodded, but reluctantly.

Norico smiled brightly, "Ruki, I visited with the village matchmaker today." Sora's head shot up, _Uh oh, here it comes again._ Ever since she had turned sixteen, which was the legal age for a young lady to wed, her mother had been talking endlessly about the village matchmaker, Mrs. Kina Fujiyama. Fortunately for Sora, she had not once spoken about-

"She said that she has found a perfect young gentleman for Sora," Norico continued. Sora let out an exasperated sigh, _Darn. And I was so hopeful too._ Norico's smile faded though, "But because of the impending battles, I'd think that he'd be drafted off to fight with the rest. That means that we won't have a chance to meet with him and his family until after everything's calmed."

"That's too bad," Sora smiled. _Yes!_ she thought.

"No worries," Ruki said, "As soon as this is all over, you will meet him. In the mean time, you will learn from the village matchmaker about being a young lady."

"Papa," Sora protested, "I can be a young lady if I tried. I don't need lessons."

"Then why don't you try acting like one sometimes?" her father scoffed.

"Because it's uncomfortable," Sora said, "Besides, we're only going to meet with him. It doesn't mean I'm going to marry him."

"What do you mean?" her father asked.

"Papa," Sora sighed, "You told me that you wouldn't force me to marry if I didn't love the man. You're not going back on your word are you?" She was about to laugh, but caught her father's serious look.

"Sora," Ruki said, "Sometimes, it is not for you to choose. If this young man chooses you as his future wife, then you will have to be married to him."

"I don't understand," Sora said softly, "You told me-"

"That was when you were young," her father said, "I'm sorry that I misled you, but that is how it is. The lady is never the one to choose. It is the man who chooses."

"But-" Sora began.

"That is how it is," Ruki said sternly.

"That's not how it should be," Sora said, "Why? I don't understand why it is that a girl is not allowed to decide ever. A girl is not allowed to choose her own husband- the man she is to spend the rest of her life with. And... and a girl is-" she braced herself for the predicted reaction she knew she'd receive from her father "-not allowed to serve as a soldier so her own father can rest peacefully without risking his life when he knows very well that he is in no condition to-"

"I will not allow talk like that in this house!" her father roared, "For now, it is okay for you to refuse the idea of not being able to choose your own husband, but for a young lady such as yourself to speak of fighting in a war and serving as a soldier is preposterous nonsense!"

"Papa," Sora protested.

"That is enough, Sora! I will hear no more of this nonsense talk!" he snapped.

Sora drew back and hung her head. Her father seldom scolded her or raised his voice. He had always let Sora get away with many things, but now that she was fast approaching the role she must take on as a young woman, things were changing.

"Do I make myself clear?" he said coldly. Sora looked away angrily. He almost raised his voice, but kept his same tone, "I asked you, do I make myself clear?" She swallowed, looked up into her father's still loving, yet anger filled eyes and nodded reluctantly.

"You?" Izzy laughed, "Married? And become a young lady too? That must be the most incredible news I've heard all day." He picked up a small pebble and threw it into the small pond.

"I know," Sora said ignoring the tone of disbelief in her young friend's voice, "But what really gets to me is that, when I was young, Papa always told me that someday I'd be able to marry a man I loved. Not one who decides to choose me. I always thought _I'd_ have the choice."

"Well," Izzy said, "according to tradition in the kingdom, no one girl is ever allowed to choose her own husband. Not even the crown princess of Tachikawa."

"Not even?" Sora asked, "And I always thought that the princess would at least have some power."

Izzy shook his head, "Nope. The princess's husband was chosen for her. From what I know, neither of the two have even seen or met before."

"That must really be awful," Sora sighed, "I'd like to at least be able to get to know the man I'll be marrying before I do."

"I'd have to say that as a common young village boy," Izzy began, "I'm actually one of the luckier people."

"Why's that?" Sora asked. She skipped a couple pebbles into the pond. The last one skipped eight times before sinking to the bottom.

"Well, not even nobility has the decision to choose for themselves," Izzy explained. He stepped back and plopped onto the rock ground, "The Prince of Kingdom Ishida-"

"You mean the prince who is to be wedded to the princess?" Sora cut in.

Izzy nodded, "Even he wasn't allowed to choose his own wife. I heard that he and his father had a huge fight over this decision. But in the end, he didn't even succeed. I can see why he doesn't like the idea of having a young lady betrothed to marry him. His mother and father are now separated and each with their own kingdoms. All because they had been married that way. Luckily, Queen Nancy of Kingdom Takaishi, hasn't been frowned upon for her decision. She's the only exception to the law of the land... so far."

"I wish I could choose to do what I wanted to," Sora said also seating herself on the rocks surrounding the pond. She then smirked as a thought came to her head, "So, Izzy... Is this why you haven't found a girl yet? Are you still choosing?"

Izzy blushed and nodded, "I haven't found any one girl in this village who strikes me as, uh, what's the word... appealing?"

"What do you look for in a girl?" Sora asked staring up into the clouds. She chuckled at some of the images she was seeing from each cloud above. One seemed to look like a bucking horse with it's rider hanging on for dear life. Sora almost giggled at her wild imagination.

"Well, I don't know," Izzy began, "I never really thought about it yet. I just turned sixteen a while back..."

"That has nothing to do with it," Sora said, "Don't any of the maidens of the village meet your standards?"

"Well, I don't know," Izzy said, "I never thought about my standards. I've always thought I'd find her when I find her... Besides, all the girls in our village are a little, uh..."

Sora laughed, "Air-headed?" She chuckled when she saw Izzy shrug, then nod.

"Maybe a little," Izzy said, "If they're not rich and snobby, they act like they are. And then some of them are just so..."

"Ditzy?" Sora chuckled. Again, Izzy just shrugged and nodded. 

"I guess I'd like to find a girl who is, I don't know, smart, intellectual," Izzy said staring up into the sky at the clouds, "That way I'd have someone I can relate to, you know."

Sora chuckled, but sighed, "I wish I had the freedom to choose my path like you do, Izzy? You don't know how lucky you are."

"If you had the freedom to choose," Izzy asked, "what would you do?" He tilted his head when he saw what looked like a cloud shaped like a deformed wagon.

"I... I'd take my father's place in battle," Sora said saying the first thing on her mind.

Izzy's head whirled to looked at her, "You know that's impossible." He looked around, "You're lucky that no one is around to hear that kind of talk from you. You'd probably get into trouble. You know it's treason to disobey the royal law of the land. And I know for a fact that there is one stating that it is forbidden for young ladies to serve as soldiers on the battlefield."

Sora nodded, "Why do you think I wish I could choose? I just don't want Papa to get hurt. As much as he or I hate to admit it, Papa has gotten, well, older... and... and I don't think he'd be able to make it out there in battle. And he hurt his leg many years ago. It's never really gotten better yet... I just know that he's going to hurt himself." She pulled her legs into her chest and buried her head.

"Well, there really isn't anything you can do about it," Izzy leaned back onto a rock behind him and spoke absentmindedly, "I wish that I could go in place of your father too, but I'm already going for my family. Unless there's another male in your family who is eligible for service, your father would never back out of this. Too bad you're a girl."

"Hey!" Sora slapped Izzy on the shoulder.

"I was speaking on behalf of your father's benefit," Izzy said rubbing his hurt shoulder, "If you were a male, then you could go and he wouldn't have to be the one heading off and we wouldn't be having this conversation and you wouldn't be such a worried wreck and..." He continued to ramble on still rubbing his hurt shoulder. He wasn't at all surprised or in awe of the strength from the young girl who had always been able to take him down whenever she felt the need.

Sora looked away and shook her head. But her face became blank suddenly. _Another male. Why isn't there-?_ Sora thought to herself, but looked into the pond at her reflection. She touched her face and then looked over at Izzy who had stopped rambling, finally and now seemed entranced at the clouds in the sky. She smiled, _Another male? If I were... What if...?_ She bit her lower lip in thought, but nodded to herself and smiled.

"No, Daddy!" the young princess stomped into her chamber and slammed the door behind her. She plopped down on her bed and began to sulk. She was furious with her father and her mother for making such a quick and rash decision.

Only seconds ago was she told that her husband was selected for her and that she would soon be wedded to him. As soon as she heard the news, she felt outraged. And with reason too. Princess Mimi Tachikawa was the one princess of the dominant kingdom of the continent. She was His Royal Majesty's pride and joy. Wasn't she even allowed to choose her own husband? Instead, she was to be wedded to some prince in a neighboring kingdom whom she'd never even met before in her whole life.

What was his name again? Yomato Ishida? She flipped over on her back side and stared at the pink shimmering canopy surrounding her huge bed. Tears streaked her face. Tears of anger. If she was to marry someone, she wanted it to be out of love. Not because of some treaty or long time promise. It just wasn't fair.

She pulled herself up and over to her window. She looked out into the beautiful lands. The lands on the continent that she hadn't even been able to explore yet. She'd always wanted to go out and see the land that the palace loomed over. It all just seemed so serene... so... beautiful.

She sighed and pulled the tiara of jewels that was holding up her light brown hair, off of her head and tossed in onto the nearest chair. Her father had promised to take her sightseeing. But that was a long time ago. She was still young and it seemed that promises made to young children, could easily be broken.

She stared out at the village beside Tachikawa Market Square. Mount Mihiroshi Village. It was more of a peaceful village than the market square outside of the palace. And it was located at the base of Mount Mihiroshi- the mystical mountain of the continent. She sighed wondering what it'd be like to live there and not as a princess. Would she finally be able to make her own decisions? Act the way she wanted to? Was it even possible?

There was a twinkle in her eye as she cocked her head in thought...

"Don't get so angry, Matt," Takeru Takaishi, called TK for short, tried to talk to his brother, "Calm down. It's not the end of the world."

"You should talk," Yomato Ishida, who preferred to be called Matt by his friends and relatives, brushed away his younger brother's hand on his shoulder, "I didn't hear you say anything when Dad announced that I was to marry that ditzy Princess Mimi Tachikawa." He stood up from the chair at his study desk and turned toward his brother.

"I try not to talk back to Dad," TK laughed. He ran his hand through his mess of blonde hair, unlike his brother's blonde hair that was nicely combed, "Anyways, what makes you think that Princess Mimi is ditzy anyways. She may turn out to be very pretty, then you'll wish that you didn't talk about her the way you do now."

"If you think so, why don't you marry her for me?" Matt said sarcastically.

"Hold it right there," TK raised his hands and backed away, "Don't toss something at me just because you don't want her yourself. That's wrong. Besides, she's a little older than I am. She wouldn't be my type anyways."

"And not being able to decide who I want to marry is right?" Matt leaned against the wall, "And how do you know she's not your type?"

"I don't really go for the ditzy princess types," TK laughed.

"I thought you said that she wasn't ditzy," Matt said sarcastically.

"I don't want to take a risk," TK joked, "Just like you, I'd rather go find a girl I love to marry. Not just some girl chosen by Mom from some royal family. Even if it means scouring the small villages of the continent to find her."

A light bulb suddenly went off in Matt's head. He looked at his brother with a devilsh smile and a twinkle in his eye, "Hey, TK. I think that we both deserve to find true love on our own."

"I know," TK said absently, "But you know how impossible-" He noticed the devious look on his older brother's face. His expression became blank, "I don't like that look on your face, Matt."

Matt smiled, "If we stay here, we'll never get to find a girl we love. But if we go out there-" he strutted over to his window and looked out into the villages surrounding the large Ishida Palace "-we'll have a greater chance of finding the right person."

"Matt," TK shook his head, "That'll never work. Especially for you. You're already supposed to marry Princess Mimi of Kingdom Tachikawa."

"But Dad said that it's not exactly settled yet," Matt said, "Until the actual wedding, nothing's final."

"But-" TK protested.

"But nothing, TK," Matt said, "If I find someone I love before the wedding, then Dad will have no other choice but to let me marry her. Besides, I'm doing this in part for you, TK. Mom hasn't found a wife for you yet cause you're still young. But in about four years, TK..."

"I don't even want to think about it," TK said.

"Then you go and you find your true love first," Matt said, "If I had thought of that earlier, I wouldn't be in this dilemma right now."

"Well..." TK sighed heavily in thought. He didn't want to have to, some day, marry a girl he didn't even know. But he didn't want to defy his mother either.

"But I have to say," Matt said, "You might be luckier. I mean, you stayed with Mom and she's a pretty reasonable person. But you never know..."

TK looked at Matt, "Alright. We'll go. But where to?"

"Here's an idea," Matt said, "I know a place that they would never look for us." He smiled his devious smile again. He looked toward the village at the base of Mount Mihiroshi and pointed at it, "That's were General Kamiya and Taichi is going to be training the new recruits to serve the kingdoms. We can always join them and hide out there. And we'll hang out with Tai while we stay there. Mom and Dad would never think of looking for us in a training camp."

"But Matt," TK began, "Those soldiers will soon be going off to battle when they're ready. And how are we supposed to find a girl in a training camp?"

"Nobody ever said that we weren't allowed to leave the training camp to go to the village there," Matt said, "And besides, we're serving the kingdoms at the same time. If we do a good job, maybe Dad and King Kai of Kingdom Tachikawa will have no choice but to let me choose who I want to marry."

"That was your idea the whole time," TK said exasperated, "You're hopeless."

"I'm just trying to take things into my own hands," Matt smiled, "Besides, like I said, this benefits you too." He smirked, "I hear that Taichi's got a very cute younger sister..."

TK glared at his brother, "I don't need you to play matchmaker for me. I can find my own true love, thank you very much. From what I hear, Tai makes his sister sound like a pain."

"You shouldn't judge before you've met her," Matt teased.

"Hypocrite," TK muttered under his breath, knowing very well that it'd be wise not to anger his brother.

"So are you game?" Matt asked looking out at the village.

TK shrugged, "Why not?" He too looked out the window at Mount Mihiroshi Village. It actually looked very nice and possibly a good place to get away to.

"Tai?" Kari Kamiya walked into her older brother's room. She sat down at his study desk and looked at him thoughtfully, "What are you doing Tai?"

Tai just looked out at the moon and the stars. For some odd reason, he had the need to observe the stars of the lovely night sky. He found himself seeing the image of ruby red eyes in his mind. The eyes of one of the most beautiful maidens he had ever seen.

That girl he had seen that afternoon while traveling around Mount Mihiroshi Village to deliver draft letters with his father. She seemed very different from many girls. Not every girl in the kingdom enjoyed climbing trees. Mostly, they would be sitting at home doing needle work with friends. But this girl... she was unique... she dared to be different...

... And she was beautiful. He couldn't stop thinking about those crimson ruby eyes of hers. They were so captivating. Sora... her friend had called her Sora... He hoped that he hadn't heard wrong...

"Hello?" Kari broke into his thoughts, "Are you here, Taichi?" She was fiddling around with the ink pen and paper on his desk.

"Wha-?" Tai whirled around, "When did you come in here?" He marched over and grabbed the pen from her hand.

"I've _been_ in here," Kari said, "You haven't though. What were you thinking of?" She smiled teasingly, "Or rather, _who_ where you thinking of?" There was a devious glint in her eye, "I know that far off look."

Tai shook his head, "Don't you have to go study with Joe?"

Kari shook her head, "No. Study session's over. Joe and Dr. Kido went home."

"Then don't you have something else to do?" Tai asked, "Besides pestering me?"

"Nope," Kari shook her head.

"Get out of here," Tai said plopping onto his bed in exasperation.

"Guess what?" Kari said, "Dad said that I could come along."

Immediately, Tai sat back up, "What?"

"Dad told me that he was going to allow me to come along and help out at the training camp," she said unenthusiastically.

"But you can't," Tai said.

"Why not?" Kari asked half not listening. Without waiting for Tai to answer, she spoke, "It's cause I'm a girl, right?" Tai didn't reply, knowing that either way, she'd get angry at him.

"Get out of here," Tai finally said, "I'm tired. Tomorrow's a big day."

"You didn't answer my question," Kari countered, knowing exactly what he was going to say. _Boys,_ she thought. She got up and headed toward the door when he didn't even say anything more, "FYI, I'm only going to be there to help out a couple things. You know, when new recruits train, the possibility of getting hurt is pretty big. I'll be there with Joe as the camp doctors. I'm not going to get in the way of your training... _Captain_ Kamiya." She tried to put the emphasis on his title enough to get a reaction from him. She succeeded and congratulated herself mentally for, once again, knowing which buttons to push to get the reaction she wanted out of her brother.

Tai sat up, "You're serious?" _Captain? When did this happen?_ he thought to himself.

"Yeah, it's not like I'm going to be training with you," Kari said, "I'm studying all this medical stuff with Joe for a reason." The whole time, she was surprisingly able to keep her face straight.

"No, no," Tai said, "I mean what you called me..."

"What did I call you?" Kari smirked. She turned and walked out of his room. Tai sighed and plopped on his bed. _She's just fooling with your head again. Remember? Last time she hinted at a promotion, you made a fool of yourself. Let's never let that happen again. Why would you get promoted to Captain anyways? Because you're good at what you do... With the occasional help of your Dad... Forget it._ Tai closed his eyes and decided to get some rest if he was going to get up early in the morning to prepare for training camp. His mind, however, wandered to that girl he had run into, or rather, caught that morning, _I wonder if I'll ever see her again._ His eyes wandered over to the window and looked at the moon. The moon was especially bright and radiant today...

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And there's the end of the first part. If you're still a little foggy on the couples I'm putting into this fic, don't worry, you're not the only ones, cause I haven't really hinted at who would be with who... yet.

Please review. ^_^


	2. Sora's Decision

Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. You people review so fast. And I'm so happy too. Thank you all so much.

Okay, like I already said, this is a Taiora. So if it seems like Sora and Izzy are a little friendlier than they usually are, it's because in this story, I made Sora and Izzy best friends who grew up together. I mean, why not? But that's all they are... best friends. Second, I'm not going to give away who the other couples are in here. You'll find out... But if you've read my other fics or my profile, you'll have a slight idea of who's with who. But only a slight idea... Some of you already seem to know. Third... I know that this isn't exactly how Mulan goes, but I put my own twist into it to accommodate all the Digi-destined and my fave couples. ^_^ Lastly, the names of the adults or anyone else who isn't a Digi-destined... totally made up cause I don't know what names to give the parents. I'm not Japanese so I don't know any Japanese names. The names came straight from my vat of ideas. I'm a seventeen year old Chinese girl living in the U.S.; that should explain why I'm not using the Japanese names. I'm just using the names I got from watching the English versions of Digimon.

And now that I've talked everyone into boredom like I always do....

Disclaimer: You know the drill... I don't own Digimon. I don't own Mulan (oops forgot to mention that in the first part) Don't sue me...

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The rays of light from the full moon shone down on Sora's face. She let out a sigh. Tomorrow, her father would leave and go directly to the front to prepare for battle. She looked at her face in the pond. She ran a finger through her auburn hair and then stood up.

She could remember back to earlier that evening. She had curiously peeked in on her father. She saw him produce a sword from the cabinet in his room that he never opened. Lying inside, was also a set of armor that had been issued to the Takenouchi family by His Royal Majesty himself. She had stared in awe at the shining metal from the garments. Then her attention had been attracted by the large blade her father now held. It was beautiful...

She watched as her father carefully wiped the blade clean causing it to shine even more brilliantly. She smiled, feeling proud to be a part of the family who owned this equipment. Then it happened...

Her father had tried to practice what moves he knew with his sword, until he leaned back and pressured all of his weight onto the leg that had been injured a long time ago. At first, he seemed to only wince slightly at the pain, but after only a split second, the pain must have been too much for him to take. He fell to the ground and grabbed at his leg, dropping his sword... Sora could tell that he was in a great deal of hurt- probably more in pride than in his leg. Her heart sank and she knew that she had to go through with her decision. She needed to make sure that her father was safe...

Looking up at the moon, she sighed aloud and spoke to herself, "It's now... or never..." She took one last look at her reflection in the clear pond water which was made especially elegant from the moon's brightness, then she turned and headed back toward her house. She had a mission to take care of before morning...

~*~*~*~

His sharp cold eyes pierced through the night sky. It was passed midnight. This was the best time to surface onto the continent's shorelines. Nobody is ever alert during the night. Sleep would be the only thing on anyone's mind. Perfect...

He turned to face the two ships miles away from the shore. Far enough to make those peaceful dimwits of the Continent of Liyira think they were still safe. His eyes laughed evilly as he motioned for his men to come out of hiding. Immediately, a large clan protruded from their places under the semi shallow areas of the ocean. None seemed the least bit fazed by the icy coldness of the water. One by one, they popped up and stomped toward their great leader... The head of the infamous Kirik Clan... Myotis Kahn.

Without exchanging any words, the group of at least thirty or more began to head toward the kingdoms of the continent. No later than did they head off, did another group of the clan descend into the icy water from their ships, swim slowly toward shore and follow after their leader. After them, more did the same...

Myotis Kahn smiled devilishly at his men... They all knew exactly what to do now that they've reached the famous Continent of Liyira... The continent which laid in peace and happiness for the past twenty years... It was so prosperous... But that was all about to change... They all exchanged evil glances at each other... Success wasn't too far off for them...

~*~*~*~

"Sora!" Norico called out into the dark. She stumbled over herself, being unable to see in the dark, "Sora? Are you out here?" She scanned the garden as her eyes began to adjust to the night.

"Mrs. Takenouchi?" a familiar young male voice called to the older woman, "Is something wrong?" Izzy approached his neighbor's house in his slumber attire; an open book in one of his hands hanging at his side.

"Koushiro?" Norico looked at her daughter's red-headed friend, "Have you seen Sora? Is she at your place?" She already knew that that was a ridiculous assumption, being the fact that it was in the middle of the night. Even so, she looked toward the Izumi's house half expecting Sora to appear from their doorway.

"Izzy?" an older male voice called to the boy, "What's going on?" Yeosho Izumi asked walking out, also in his slumber attire. He turned when a candle was lit from inside his house.

"I don't know, Father," Izzy replied, "Mrs. Takenouchi told me that she can't find Sora."

"Sora's missing?" a female voice was heard from the same direction. Walking out with a candle in hand, Tiana Izumi stood beside her husband.

"Yes," Norico said, "I don't know why, but I woke up just a little while ago. I guess I heard something... I went to see Sora, but found her room empty. I don't know where-"

"Sora!" Ruki stumbled out of the house, "She's gone..." Norico ran to his side to help him up. Despite the returning pain from the old injury, he struggled to stand with the aid of Norico and Yeosho.

"What do you mean?" Norico asked sensing the fear in his voice. She then noticed the necklace dangling from his hand and grabbed it. It was a necklace with a pendent in the shape of a heart. The necklace belonged to Sora. She had been wearing it ever since she was a baby. Norico looked back at her husband, but found herself following his gaze to the stable where their only horse, Starlight was supposed to be resting. Instead, the stable door was open and the stable... was empty.

"She didn't," Tiana gasped realizing what must have happened.

"She took the draft letter and my armor... and my sword," Ruki said, "Sora... She's... she's gone... to fight my battle..."

Izzy looked at each adult in shock. _Oh no, what is she thinking..._ he thought. His mind suddenly wandered back to the conversation he had had with her that afternoon. He looked at the adults and hung his head only to utter out, "I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

"Koushiro, I don't understand," Norico said pacing back and forth. She squeezed Sora's necklace in her hand tightly.

"What do you mean this is your fault, Izzy?" his father asked.

"I mean," Izzy began to stutter, "I was- I was talking to Sora this afternoon when we were at the pond. She was sad because of the whole drafting and a little bit about the matchmaking- how she wasn't able to choose her own husband. And I made things worse by telling her that that was how things went in the kingdom. I told her that girls don't have much freedom to choose. And then she told me how lucky I was for having the freedom of choice-" His mother stopped him.

"How is all this tying in to how it's your fault, Izzy?" she asked nervously, only partly listening to her son.

"I'm getting there," Izzy said. He looked at the four adults all fearing for one young girl's life. He cleared his throat and continued his story, "Well, I asked her, if she had the freedom to choose, what would she do and the first thing she told me was that she would choose to take her father's place in battle."

Ruki closed his eyes understanding exactly why Sora would do such a thing, but at the same time he was angry at how he could have let this happen and the defiance of his only daughter.

"But I told her that that was impossible," Izzy continued, "That the law of the land forbade girls to serve as soldiers..." He trailed off a little unsure of whether or not he wanted to go on.

Tiana poured four cups of hot tea hoping that it would calm everyone, "Yes. The law of the land specifically forbids girls to join the army in battle. Sora can't get in even if she has the draft letter... unless..." She trailed off and looked at Izzy with a face of understanding and disbelief.

Izzy nodded knowing that his mother had finally caught on. He continued his story anyways, "I told her that unless there was another male in her family, she'd never be able to convince Mr. Takenouchi not to go into battle. And then I said to her, 'Too bad you're a girl.'"

"She's disguised herself as a boy," Norico slumped into a chair in shock, "She's determined to make it into the training camp in place of Ruki. No matter what the cost..." She dropped the necklace onto the table and laid her head down. She felt close to tears.

"What can we do now?" Yeosho looked at Ruki.

"We can only pray and hope that our ancestors will watch over Sora," he said unemotionally, "She's determined to do this."

"But if we don't find her, she's going to get herself killed," Norico cried.

"If we expose her," Ruki said, "She _will_ die. And we may end up being charged with treason. All of us who know about this." He took a deep breath, "We can only wait and hope that she doesn't go too far and she doesn't get found out." He closed his eyes.

"I'll go find her," Izzy said, "It's my fault she's in this mess. I'll find her and I'll find a way to bring her back. Or at least keep her from getting found out." He looked from his parents to Sora's. They all looked at him with hope in their eyes.

"It's not your fault, Izzy," Ruki said, "We all know Sora well enough to know that only she has the guts to pull a stunt like this. Only she could ever force herself to do something so irresponsible..."

Izzy shook his head, "I think she's being very brave. Not very many people would risk their lives for a loved one. Not the way she has decided to..." He caught his father's disapproving look and quickly added, "But she could have gone about this in a different way. I agree that she was probably not thinking."

"I don't care whether she's thinking or not," Norico chimed in, "I'm begging you to please help my daughter. Help us bring her back safely. Please, Koushiro."

Izzy nodded, "I promise. I won't let anything happen to her."

"I don't know if I should go on with this," Sora looked toward the training camp. It was still dark out and she wasn't supposed to be there until in a couple hours. She'd been pacing around for the past hour. She looked at Starlight and sighed to the black horse, "I feel so stupid. What if they find out I'm a girl?" She leaned against the tree and looked at the sky. Starlight seemed to sense her distress and nudged against the girl. Sora laughed, "Thanks Starlight. I guess with you around, I might have a bit more confidence."

She sat down, "Now I just have to wait for morning so I can show up." She sighed, "Why did they have to make the camp so close to Mount Mihiroshi Village though. Mama and Papa will probably spot me easily if they decide to... But they can't exactly get out here that quickly. We _do_ live on the mountain. And you're our only horse, Starlight. They wouldn't be able to get here even if they really wanted to."

She suddenly thought about something, "What if Izzy sees me? Great! I'll have to find a way to hide from him, or-"

"Or what?" a familiar voice called out. Soft horse trotting was heard. Sora looked up to see her friend. She smiled sheepishly as Izzy's horse came to a stop. He dismounted and looked Sora up and down. She had managed to chop her hair off, short enough not to look like a girl, "That's a pretty good look for you. How'd you manage the hair, though?"

"Izzy," Sora groaned, "How'd you find me?"

"I followed the horse tracks that Starlight left on her way here," Izzy said. He laughed, "Actually-" he patted his own horse "-Rada can pick up Starlight's scent from miles away. Also considering the fact that we came after you only a while after you left."

"Are my parents-?" Sora began pulling herself up.

"Well," Izzy said, "Why don't we go back and find out?" He proceeded to mount his horse so that he could drag Sora back home before it was too late.

"I'm not going back," Sora stood her ground.

"Sora," Izzy said, "you can't go through with this. Do you know how dangerous this can be?"

"I'm willing to take the risk," Sora said coldly.

"You'll be executed for treason," Izzy said, "And since I know-"

"I'm not going to pull you down with me," Sora said, "I know my place-" she looked at herself "-well, sort of. But if anything happens, just pretend you don't know me. It's that easy. You don't even have to pretend to be close to me or anything at all."

"I can't do that," Izzy said. He looked up toward the east where the sun would soon be rising, "Come on. We're going home before it's too late."

"No," Sora said indignantly, "I'm going to do this. If I go home now, then I've completely failed what I came here to do. Papa will be taken to the front. There's no telling what would happen to him out there."

"But what about you?" Izzy asked, "What do you think is going to happen to you if anyone finds out?"

"I said that I'm willing to take that risk," Sora said coldly.

"What about your parents?" Izzy asked, "What's going to happen to them?"

"Nothing," Sora said, "I may not be very knowledgeable, but I do know that they can't hold this against my parents. It's me and me only. No one else."

"Sora-" Izzy again attempted.

"Izzy, will you listen to me?" Sora said angrily, "You don't know what I saw only hours ago. Before I even decided to go through with this, I was watching Papa in his room. He tried... he had tried to do it all over again. He had tried to be the soldier he used to be... But Izzy, his leg gave out on him! He's still hurting. There was no way he'd be able to make it out here. At least, I'm younger and I have a chance." She held back her tears remembering the pain she saw in her father's face that came from his hurt leg, "Izzy, I don't want anything to happen to Papa. He means too much to me. I know you understand what I mean. Please Izzy, don't make me go back. I need to do this for him. I need to save him from making a mistake. And..."

Izzy didn't speak, he felt the want to cave in, but he tried to fight it. There was no way that he would let his friend risk her life like this, though he understood completely her situation.

"... and... I need to save the Takenouchi pride," Sora finished.

__

Pride. Is that all people think about now? Izzy couldn't believe it himself. She was doing this all so that her family name would remain on the top list of the kingdom as one of the finest of Kingdom Tachikawa's warriors. Sora knew that her father would not be able to make it out on the battle field and preserve their family name. And this is what she wanted to do. He almost felt a pang of anger. She was willing to risk her life to help her father preserve their family's good name and to help save her father's life.

"And this is the risk you're willing to take?" Izzy asked taking a deep breath.

Sora nodded, "It is. You would do the same if you were in my place. I know you would."

Izzy looked away and licked his dry lips, knowing that she was right... again. He turned back to his friend, "Just don't expect me to have your back the whole time. You're going to have to be smart."

Sora smiled, "Thank you, Izzy. Thank you." She immediately hugged her younger friend as he returned the happy embrace.

"You're right," Izzy said, "I'd do the exact same thing if I were in you're place." His face then became serious, "There's only one problem, though."

"What?" Sora asked.

"You're going to need a name and an identity," Izzy said, "I don't think the name Sora is going to come across as a good guy's name."

Sora smiled and nodded, "I think I'll have it all figured out."

"Thank you for letting me stay here," Mimi smiled sweetly at the younger girl.

"No problem," Kari smiled, "My dad's the general in charge here. But, after he leaves, my brother's going to be the one to who calls the shots. But don't worry. I easily intimidate my big brother. And I'm sure they won't mind having an extra pair of hands around to help." She handed the delicate girl a small bowl of water. Mimi gulped it down instantly.

"Thank you," she smiled. Mimi had managed to sneak out of the palace with no problem. Actually, there was one problem... she had neglected to smuggle, for herself, any money and had been starving and thirsty. The fact that she had never left the palace before, contributed in why she wasn't known by anyone, thus resulting in her not getting any food, water or shelter. She didn't even know how far she could get to. She just knew that she wanted to get away from that palace. After a couple days of walking, her gentle body finally gave out.

Kari had been out looking for herbal medicines that morning when she came across the young princess's body laying in the middle of no where. Fortunately, she was only physically weak from lack of food and water and all she needed was a little bit of nourishment to recover. Kari had brought the limp body back to her room at the camp and let her rest a while.

Kari giggled at the girl, "Hey, and another thing. We're not going to be the only girls here. My friend will be joining us soon. She's going to be here to help clean up after the new recruit trainees in the mess hall."

There was a knock on the door as Kari finished her sentence. She smiled, "That must be her right now." She headed toward the door and opened it to reveal a young girl, about a year older than herself, wearing spectacles and had long purple hair covered partly by her favorite scarf.

"Kari!" Yolei Inuoue almost squealed, "It's been a long time!" The two girls hugged each other.

"Yolei," Kari said. She brought her friend over to Mimi, "I want you to meet, uh..." She realized that she never asked for a name.

"Mimi," Mimi replied without thinking.

"Mimi?" Kari asked, "You're name is Mimi?"

"But the princess of Kingdom Tachikawa is named Mimi," Yolei said softly.

"Uh, yeah," Mimi said catching her mistake. People probably didn't know what she looked like, but they definitely knew the name very well. Instantly, she dug through her brain to find ideas, "Yeah, um, I heard. You see, I'm from outside of the kingdom. Um, my parents and I live pretty far up in the mountains, until they died a while ago and then I came down here." _That's it,_ she mentally added.

"Oh," Yolei and Kari both nodded, "Okay." Kari turned to Yolei and noticed the large bag Yolei was carrying with her. She sighed knowing what the bag contained. She shook her head.

"What?" Yolei placed her bag down on her bed and untied it revealing a couple books. She looked at the titles of the books and pulled out the one she was searching for.

"Nothing," Kari said, "No wonder Tai always laughs at you. Always buried in books."

"Books?" Mimi got up and walked over, "What kind of books?" She looked at the bunch of thick books in Yolei's bag, "Those are pretty big. It must take forever to read." Mimi almost felt ashamed as she wondered if all commoners read large books like this. That largest book she remembered even touching was a little child's fairy tale. Sure, the palace had the kingdom's biggest library, but that didn't mean she'd ever read any of those books. They were just so big and so... long.

"Only about two days, four hours and about ten minutes per book, calculating from my reading speed. Sometimes I get through a book in less than a day. But that's when I have absolutely nothing else to do," Yolei said absentmindedly pulling her books out and placing them at the table next to her bed, "It can take up to five days, an hour and fourteen minutes when I'm really busy. For someone with a little slower reading speed, it might take over ten to fifteen days."

Mimi gave Yolei a confused look and turned to Kari who shrugged her shoulders. Kari giggled, "We don't call her the brain for no reason. Too bad they don't let girls work for the royal family and council as anything more than just a cook or a servant or a nurse. Yolei'd make a great tactics officer."

"Nah," Yolei said, "I'd rather not spend my time with all those boring ministers who think they know what they're talking about. It'll definitely get frustrating. I work alone." She laughed.

Mimi and Kari giggled. _Hmm...,_ Mimi thought to herself,_ Kari's right, too bad they don't let girl's into the royal council, Yolei's pretty smart... I could easily put in a good word for her... Wait, I should put in a good word for her... she could be the kingdom's very first female council member..._

There was another knock on the door. Kari went over to open it and Tai stuck his head in, "You guys settled in yet?" He looked around the room noticing one more person than there should be.

"Yeah, Tai," Kari said, "We're coming."

"Good morning, Tai," Yolei smiled her cheesy smile at her friend's older brother. She turned back to unpacking her belongings which only included a couple changes of clothing, all those books, a map of the continent and a small telescope she used every night for stargazing.

"Who's that?" Tai asked looking at Mimi.

"I found her this morning," Kari said, "She had passed out only a couple feet from here so I brought her here. I figured you and Dad wouldn't mind."

Tai nodded, "We could use an extra pair of hands." He knew that it didn't make any difference whether or not he approved. Kari would keep this newcomer here if she wanted to. Without another word, he pulled his head back out and headed toward the training ground.

"Come on," Kari motioned for the two girls to follow her, "Some of the new trainees probably have already shown up. We just need to go outside and stand around." She looked at Mimi, "I'll introduce you to the camp doctor and his son later.

"Your brother's cute," Mimi said without another thought. Immediately, she clapped her hand over her mouth, "I mean..."

Yolei giggled, "Don't worry. I thought the same thing when I first saw him. Then he turned into one of those jerky older brothers." She looked Mimi up and down, "He wouldn't be your type anyways."

"Besides," Kari smirked, "I think some other girl already stole his heart."

"How do you know?" Yolei asked.

"Well," Kari said, "Last night, I went into his room and he was staring off at the moon. He had this far off look in his face-"

"You mean the one Davis gets whenever anyone mentions your name?" Yolei cut in.

Kari made a disgusted face, "I hope not. I doubt it though... Tai's looks nicer. But anyways, I could immediately tell that Tai was thinking of a girl." She giggled.

"Ooh!" Yolei said in a sing song tone, "Tai's in love."

__

Darn! Mimi thought to herself, _First decent guy I've met since I left the palace and he's already taken. Oh well, doesn't matter anyways... I'm already... taken._ She sighed sadly at the thought, but neither Kari nor Yolei seemed to notice.

"Hold it," Yolei said, "I just need to know one thing. Davis Motimiya isn't going to be at training camp, is he?"

"I'm afraid so," Kari looked disappointed, "_All_ of the kingdoms young men have to serve in battle. And since Davis is a new recruit, he'll be here. At least he won't be able to do anything funny with Tai around." She sighed and hoped that he wouldn't make a scene when he saw her.

"Davis Motimiya?" Mimi asked.

"A very persistent little boy who insists that he and Kari are in love," Yolei said, "I've had to create many diversions so that Kari could escape from him."

"So far," Kari let out a relieved sigh, "I'm just glad that neither of us are at the legal age of marriage yet. There is no doubt in my mind that I'd probably have to-" She bit her lower lip not even wanting to think about it. She'd known Davis for only a while, but she didn't like his persistence and his assumption that she like him back. Most of all, she didn't feel any love toward him. Not the kind that one would feel toward a soul mate. It wasn't that she didn't like him. He was a good friend to both her and her brother. She just didn't love him the way he loved her. Actually, it was more infatuation than it was love.

"Is he very obnoxious?" Mimi asked.

Kari and Yolei looked at each other and then at the same time nodded.

"Fall in!" Tai called out toward the group of newly drafted soldiers. Immediately, the new recruits fell in line and stood as tall and straight as they could. Tai looked each person over and nodded in approval at the turn out.

"Tai," General Kamiya called out as he hurried out of the camp building. Behind him was the camp doctor, Dr. Miko Kido and his son Joe Kido. Beside him was one of the kingdom's royal council members only known as Jujo. They walked past the three girls whom some of the new soldiers had been trying to show off to. He stood before Tai, smiled, but immediately became serious, "Stand at attention." Tai straightened up and stood stark still.

"Taichi Kamiya," General Kamiya began.

"Yes, Sir!" Tai answered.

"By order of His Majesty and the General in command of the front," General said, "Your are now hereby promoted to Captain and commander of the newly recruited members of the royal army at Mount Mihiroshi Village. Take your order." He held out the script in front of Tai. Immediately, Tai dropped to one knee and received his promotion order above his head and then stood up and bowed to his father.

"Tai," General Kamiya said, "You are now in command of this section. You are to train them and prepare them the best you can. When we call for you, you will be sure to have these boys ready to battle and meet us at the front."

"On my honor," Tai said bowing to his father again.

"Now," General Kamiya said, "I will be heading out with the current top cavalry and Dr. Kido to the front. You will have the aid of Joe Kido, Councilman Jujo, and..." he caught that expectant look from his precious young daughter and almost smiled, but remained serious "-your sister while your are here. Good luck, Tai."

Tai nodded and stood still as he watched his father turn around, mount his horse and then command the top cavalry to ride out. His older friend, Joe turned and entered his room to double check the medical supplies. Councilman Jujo just turned up his nose, muttered a "I'll be watching you" to Tai and then turned to enter the camp building to go to his room.

Tai shrugged off the councilman's words and turned to see the eager faces of the newly recruited boys. He gave Kari a nod, who on cue, stepped up toward the line of boys. Yolei followed behind with a book in her hand to check off each boy's name as Kari called them off and then Mimi stood behind Yolei with a tray to collect the draft letters. Tai stood by and watched to make sure there were no problems.

To her dismay, the first person Kari came to was the young Davis Motimiya. Kari stood before him and unenthusiastically asked for his draft letter. He gave her a cheesy smirk, "Hi Kari."

"Draft letter, please," Kari said already feeling irritated. Davis pulled out his letter and handed it to Kari. She opened it up, read the name at the top and said, "Davis Motimiya." Yolei checked over the book in her hand and made a small mark next to Davis's name. Kari handed the draft letter to Mimi and went on.

"I'll see you around, Kari," Davis grinned.

"Motimiya, you will decease hitting on my sister," Tai warned with an angry, but amused glare. Davis immediately shrunk back. The three girl couldn't help but to grin a little bit at the effect Tai had on the younger fourteen year old version of him.

"Ken Ichijouji," Kari read the next letter. Like before, Yolei checked off the name and Mimi collected the letter and the three girls continued on.

Soon, they came to two blonde boys who just stood there. Kari looked at them curiously, "Where are your draft letters?" The two boys looked at each other mouthing the words, "draft letters?"

"What's the problem?" Tai asked coming over. Immediately, he seemed to show recognition, but caught the taller blonde's warning look to stay quiet. He kept a straight face and spoke to the two, "Come with me." He turned and headed toward his room in the camp building. _What now?_ he thought.

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End part two. I hope this is going on okay. I'm trying to make this one as good as possible. My other fic isn't hitting it off too well, but I will finish it.... when more ideas come to me. Right now, for that story, I'm drawing a blank. But this one is actually coming along pretty well.

Again, I want to thank you all for all those nice reviews... I love you all so much... I'm just glad you're enjoying this.

Please review. Thanx. :)


	3. Training Camp

Author's Note: After hours of racking my brain and more hours of proof reading... I finally decided that this was good enough for the public. Here is the next part of Pride and Love. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. You all deserved this a hell of a lot earlier, but when writer's block kicks in for me, or when my mind is set on another idea... well, you probably know how it goes.

Another thing... I'm not too into the girl/girl, or the guy/guy relationship thing, (don't flame me, I'm just speaking my mind) so if anyone thinks that they see hints of that at all, keep in mind that Sora is disguised as a guy. All the characters in my fic are straight.

Enough of my talking... well, maybe a little bit more... Um... I have absolutely no clue what the names of the parents are. Any name other than those of the Digi-destined are all made up. Please forgive me if they sound stupid.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon... Do I really have to have one of these for each chapter? Hmm... Anyways... I don't own Mulan either, or at least I don't own the rights to it or the original idea... but I do own my story and the plot... somewhat... heh heh...

So, without further ado...

________________________________________

Tai stood in his room and waited until he heard one of the boys shut the door. He then turned around with a serious face and bowed down, "Forgive me, Your Highnesses, I didn't realize you would be here." He had to try his best to not sound irritated at his two closest friends.

Matt and TK couldn't control themselves and began laughing. Matt spoke, "Don't be so serious, man. You're really putting on a pretty good show there, Captain. Now, get up."

Tai rose to face the two nobles and his face remained serious, "May I ask of My Lords, why it is you are here?"

"Don't be so serious," Matt repeated, "You don't have to treat us like princes unless we're in public and everyone knows who we are, which in this case no one knows who we are, so... uh..." He caught Tai's angry glare and immediately shut up.

Tai sighed, "I am being serious now. I have to be serious, because this is no laughing matter. What are you two doing? Do you know that if His Majesty of Ishida and Queen Nancy of Takaishi find out that I'm trianing two princes in my training camp, I'd be in big trouble? Especially since when you're a trainee here, I'm the one who gives orders and commands? It wouldn't matter how good a friend I am to you. They could have my head for ordering around the princes of Kingdom Tachikawa's allied kingdoms. What do you expect me to be able to do?"

"Don't sweat it, Taichi," Matt said, "Just don't think of us as princes. The reason we came here was so we could get away from prince life for a while. We aren't here to torture you or get you in trouble or anything..."

"You're serious?" Tai narrowed his eyes.

"We're serious," Matt grinned. TK sighed aloud and slapped his head in exasperation at his brother's determination to stay around.

"Alright," Tai finally said, "I have a feeling that there's no way I'm going to be able to do anything about this. You two _do_ reserve the right to do as you please... Just promise me that you won't cause any trouble. Just because you two are princes does not mean I'm going to go easy on you."

"Yes, Captain!" Matt said. He looked at TK who just grinned sheepishly and nodded.

"Uh, yeah, whatever," TK rolled his eyes.

Tai sighed, _This is going to be a very interesting training group. What next?_

"Ruki Takenouchi," Kari said, she smiled at the auburn haired trainee who returned the friendly gesture and proceeded to move on. Something about this person seemed so different to her. She had a feeling that this particular trainee was no ordinary boy. She handed the draft letter to Mimi, but stopped when Yolei spoke up.

"Wait," Yolei flipped through the two pages of the book once more, "Ruki Takenouchi isn't in here."

Kari looked at Yolei confused and then turned back to the trainee who had handed her the draft letter, "Are you sure you're supposed to be here?"

Sora began to panic, but tried not to show it. She just nodded, "Yes. I'm sure, My Lady. Unless there's another training camp nearby."

Mimi, with one hand balancing the tray, opened Sora's draft letter with her other hand. _Takenouchi, huh? Sounds familiar..._ she thought to herself. She read the letter carefully and then spoke, "This can't be your draft letter. Ruki Takenouchi is an experienced soldier and I believe he is a lot older than you are. Do you understand that it is treason to steal the royal draft letters?" For that split second, she had forgotten that she was, at the moment, posing as a common village girl instead of the crown princess of Tachikawa.

Kari and Yolei looked at Mimi in surprise. Mimi shrugged nervously, "Um, I... I may be an outsider, but I'm sure I know a thing or two about the royal law of the land." She smiled and let out a breath of relief when Yolei and Kari nodded.

"She's right," Kari said, "Stealing royal draft letters and posing as someone else to serve as a royal soldier is high treason. Are you sure this is where you're supposed to be? Is there a reason for this?" Deep down, she didn't know why, but she was hoping that this trainee would have a good enough excuse so as not to be charged for treason.

"I-" Sora began, but was cut off.

"What seems to be the problem?" Tai's voice called over to his sister. Behind him, came the two blonde princes, trying to hide their smirks from the stunt they had just successfully pulled off. Tai stepped up to his sister.

"This new recruit does not have the correct credentials," Mimi spoke up, "This is not his draft letter." She indicated the script she had in her hand.

Tai looked at Kari who nodded, "He may be joining as someone he's not, which we all understand is illegal."

"I can explain everything," Sora spoke up unwittingly. She almost slapped herself. How was she going to tell these people why she was really there? Who she really was? _I'm actually a girl disguised as a guy so I can take my father's place in battle so that he can live peacefully the rest of his old age?_ Sora felt helpless, but hoped that she'd be able to make her brain work at least half as quickly as Izzy's usually did... Izzy! He'd get her out of this... Wouldn't he? _No, I can't rely on Izzy all the time. I'm the one who got myself into this mess,_ she thought, _Why didn't I listen to Papa? No... why didn't I just listen to Izzy and come up with a good story as to why I'm here instead of Papa?_ She almost groaned at herself angrily, but refrained when she heard the captain speak up.

"Let's hear your expla-" Tai stopped talking when he saw this new recruit's face. The first thing that caught his eye was Sora's- her ruby crimson eyes. So familiar... so entrancing... Tai's face softened immediately and without so much as a thought, he spoke, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't believe so, Captain," Sora said immediately looking down away from his stare. Her heart began pounding quickly both in fear and something she didn't seem to understand. Though she denied it, she had already recognized this young captain as the same young man who had broken her fall only days before.

"Are you sure...?" Tai asked blinking in confusion. He shook his head to snap out of whatever trance he had fallen into. _Whatever that was,_ Tai thought, _snap out of it, Taichi. What's wrong with you?_ Then something else caught his eye. A red-head standing right next to Sora. He looked at Izzy in recognition, "You... I remember you."

Izzy just stood there. Though he was usually a quick thinker, it wasn't easy for him to do so while he was, at the same time, fearing that Sora's identity would be found out. The only thing he could choke out after a long silence was, "Uh, yes, my Captain." He gulped and then spoke quickly now, "We saw each other only two days ago while you were passing by delivering the royal draft letters, My Lord."

"Yes," Tai said, "That's right. And-" he glanced at Sora, but not understanding why "-there was a girl, was there not? She fell out of the large oak." There was a little bit of snickering from the line of trainees, but it immediately stopped when Tai looked over. He turned back toward Izzy.

Izzy nodded and Sora almost felt like strangling her life-long friend. _You're not helping,_ she thought, _Great! What if he recognizes me? This is just great._

Kari and Yolei looked at each other smirking. "A girl," Kari mouthed to Yolei. _Looks like Tai's found his significant other,_ she thought, _I wonder who it could be._ But she then turned her attention back to the situation.

"Tai," Kari beckoned.

"Uh, yes," Tai turned back to Sora, "Can you explain why this is not your draft letter?"

"If I may, Captain," Izzy began, but continued without being given permission. All he could think of was saving his friend's butt, "My friend here, is the son of Ruki Takenouchi, the rightful owner of this draft letter. But because Mr. Takenouchi had an unexpected accident costing him the use of his leg, he wasn't able to make it to the front as he intended."

"Can he not speak for himself?" Tai asked.

Izzy almost fell over in shock. That was one of the questions he did not expect to be asked. He gulped a little, but was unnoticed, "He, uh... Of course he can."

Tai nodded satisfied. He turned back to Sora, "Now, why weren't you drafted in the first place?"

"Yes," Yolei chimed in, "By law, as the son of Ruki Takenouchi, you should have been the one to be drafted instead of your father."

"It's a private family matter that had just been resolved, Captain," Sora answered deciding to take things into her own hands now. Mentally, she thanked Izzy with a sigh of relief.

Tai looked skeptically at Sora. Again, Sora panicked knowing that that wasn't enough to satisfy Tai's curiosity.

"You see, My Lord," Izzy interjected saving Sora again, "By law, my friend is not allowed the rightful title of Takenouchi, being that his mother is not the lawful wife of Ruki Takenouchi. But because Ruki Takenouchi is unable to serve in the royal army, my friend was asked to take Mr. Takenouchi's place in battle."

Tai narrowed his eyes at the young red-head, "Why not let him answer?"

"To him," Izzy answered confidently, "his background is somewhat, uh, embarrassing for him to speak about. I hope you can understand that, Sir."

"Is that so?" Tai said.

"From what I know," Yolei interrupted, "Ruki Takenouchi is a very proud man. There is no way that he would let his son take his place-"

"Yes," Izzy interrupted the girl, "Mr. Takenouchi is indeed a very proud man. Even with a hurt leg, he insists on being at the front. It had taken a lot of pleading from Sora and myself to-" Izzy stopped talking. _Oh no. I slipped,_ Izzy thought. He had been thinking so fast and talking at an even faster speed that he didn't even realize what he had said. _And only a second ago you were so confident,_ Izzy scolded himself, _This is getting very, very exhausting. Sora owes me big time._

"Sora?" Kari asked.

"Uh," Sora's eyes widened, "my sister, uh, half-sister-" _Mental note: strangle Izzy_ "-Papa always listens to her. She was able to talk him into letting me take his place."

"And you are...?" Tai asked.

"I, uh-" Sora began.

"He doesn't even know his own name," someone snickered. Tai turned to give a warning look, but found that all the trainees were as he had left them- standing quiet and very, very still. He turned back toward Sora and Izzy with a suspicious look.

"What now, Tai?" Kari asked.

"He's only trying to help his father, an exception is in order," Matt chimed in unwittingly. He hung his head sheepishly remembering that while he was at training camp, Tai was the one who gave the orders. He knew that Tai was already upset with him for suddenly appearing on the training grounds. But to his surprise, Tai nodded in agreement.

"That's true," Tai said, "I admire people like you." His cold face softened and he smiled at Sora, "Even though you are not obligated by law to come brave battle in your family name, you still did so. I'll accept you into my camp, but this does not mean that you get any special treatment. Do I make myself clear?"

Sora nodded, "Very clear, Captain."

"His name's not on the list," Yolei brought up.

"Then write it in," Tai said walking off back to his spot to observe. Matt and TK took their places back in line after they nodded in greeting to Sora and Izzy. The two returned the gesture.

Kari smiled sweetly at Sora. Like Tai, she too admired people who thought of others more than themselves. Putting their life on the line, even though they didn't have to, just so a loved one wouldn't get hurt. But for some reason, she still felt that this person was no ordinary boy who came to training camp. This person was different.

"Okay," Yolei also smiled at the young girl incognito as a boy, "Name."

Sora panicked for possibly the hundredth time, finding herself running through her brain for the first name that popped into her head, "My name is..." she spoke slowly.

"Don't you know your own name?" Mimi asked.

"Of course I do, My Lady," Sora said nervously, "It's-"

"It must be the heat," Izzy cut in, "You haven't been feeling too well lately, have you, _Nicolas._" He stressed the name to let Sora know that he still had her back.

"Yes, that's it," Sora played along. She turned back to Kari and Yolei, "Just put me down as Nicolas."

"Okay," Yolei smiled and wrote in the name. She, as well as Kari and Mimi, shrugged off what seemed like the red-head suggesting a name and the auburn haired trainee accepting it. Yolei spoke to confirm, "Nicolas Takenouchi." Sora nodded. She let out a huge mental sigh of relief, but wondered if the girls in front of her didn't notice the fact that it seemed more like Izzy was giving her a name. _Too much worrying for one day,_ she thought, _I am going to get a very good night's sleep._

"Since you're fighting in your father's place," Kari said, "You will be given the rightful name of Takenouchi while you're here."

"Thank you, My Lady," Sora bowed.

Kari withheld a fit of giggles. "My Lady." Nobody had ever called her by a respectful title before and this one recruit had already used this line of respect a few times. Usually, everyone just called her Kari, with the exception of Tai who called her "squirt" every now and then.

Kari moved on to Izzy who was next. The other two girls followed behind. Mimi spoke to Sora, "Do you go by Nick sometimes?"

"Uh, I could," Sora said. Mimi smiled and turned back to what she was doing.

"Kou- Koushiro, is it?" Kari said trying to pronounce the long name. Izzy nodded.

"Koushiro Izumi?" Yolei asked looking at the longest name on the list, pronouncing it with no problem. Kari nodded and Yolei checked it off. They moved on.

Sora glanced at Izzy as soon as they were out of sight from the three girls or Tai. She almost laughed. "Nicolas?" she mouthed. Izzy shrugged, mouthing, "Couldn't think of anything better." The two immediately stood still when Tai glanced at them. Both trying to hide their laughter and amusement at how close they were at being found out.

"Tai," Kari walked up to her big brother after all the trainees were accounted for. Tai nodded.

"Take the draft letters into my quarters and set them on my study table," Tai said. Kari, Yolei and Mimi turned and walked away.

Tai looked out at the group, "I'm glad to have all of you here. All ready to serve the royal army and fend off the Kirik Clan, whom I have received news are only miles from shore at this moment. It'll only be a matter of time until they arrive outside of our kingdom walls. The council has estimated about ten to twenty days."

"Tai," Kari turned back around, "I almost forgot..." She turned toward the two blonde recruits who had been unable to produce draft letters. She began to walk toward them.

Now it was Tai's turn to panic along with TK. Matt on the other hand, remained calm and spoke to clear up the awkward situation, "Lady Kamiya," Matt began, "We've already spoken with Captain Kamiya about our situation. You see-" he glanced at TK "-my brother and I are from outside of the kingdom. We used to live in Mount Jyoto. When we heard about the upcoming invasion of the horrendous Kirik Clan, we decided to come help out the kingdoms which rule over our beloved Continent of Liyira. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain draft letters." At the same time, Tai and TK let out a silent sigh of relief.

"And you okayed this, Tai?" Kari asked.

Tai nodded, "We will need all the help we can get. The Kirik Clan is known to be very strong."

"Okay," Kari said, "If you say so." She walked over to the two brothers, "I'll need your names."

"Uh, Matt and TK," Matt said. Instead of giving their full names, Matt felt that it would be a better idea just to give the names that the two brothers usually went by around family and close friends; the names that none of the common people had heard. He knew very well that practically everyone in the kingdom knew the names Yamato and Takeru. Giving those names would probably attract a lot of attention and a lot of confusion.

Kari nodded and Yolei wrote down the names, "Interesting names. How about a surname?"

"Yorobi?" TK choked out hoping that it sounded more like a reply than a suggestion. Matt glanced at his brother through the corner of his eyes keeping back a smile.

__

Nice TK, Matt thought, _Sounds good._

"Matt Yorobi and TK Yorobi," Yolei said, "Gotcha."

"What does TK stand for?" Kari asked curiously smiling at the young blonde.

"Nothing," TK squeaked nervously receiving a small giggled from the girl. He calmed a little and smiled back at her catching his eyes with hers. They seemed to lose each other in their gazed for quite a while. At that moment, a certain maroon haired boy at the very beginning of the line, became angered.

__

Is that blondy hitting on my girl? Davis Motimiya thought in jealousy.

Yolei gently shook the younger girl's shoulder. "Okay," Kari turned to the other two girls not quite wanting to break her gazed from the blonde, "Let's go." They walked away.

Tai now took control over his group again hoping for no more interruptions. He looked up at the sky and noticed that it was almost time for the midday meal, "Soldiers. There are a total of ten camp bunks on this camp. That should be enough for six persons per bunk." He pointed toward a building to the side, "That is where the medical station is located, where Dr. Kido's son, Joe Kido will tend to you if should have any injuries or health related problems. Also in that building is the girl's bunk- you are to never go in there unless there is a good enough reason. My room is next to theirs. Councilman Jujo's bunk is next to the medical facilities. The mess hall, where you will all have each of your meals, is located in that building-" he pointed toward another building separated from the camp building.

He then pointed at ten buildings spread throughout the camp, "Those are your bunks. There are posts outside of each bunk, for those of you who have ridden in on horses. You will have an hour and a half break each day to do whatever you please- which does not include entering the girls' bunk. You are allowed to leave the camp grounds only during that allotted time to roam the village or the surroundings, but you must be back in time, or you might be punished. Training begins each morning right before sunrise. You are expected to be awake and properly prepared each day. I expect that all of you know to maintain a state of discipline.

"You may now go put your personal belongings away and then return back here for the midday meal. If there are any other questions, feel free to ask. And again, you are to never enter the girls' bunk unless there is good enough reason. I hope I make myself clear. Dismissed." Immediately, all the boys scattered toward the bunks.

Izzy and Sora turned to head for the nearest bunk, but Tai stopped them, "Excuse me, Takenouchi. I must ask you a few questions."

Sora nodded, "Izzy, you go ahead." Izzy nodded and walked off running into the two blondes who offered to share their bunk with him and Sora. He nodded and they all headed toward the bunk closest to the camp building.

"Your name was Nicolas, was it not?" Tai asked Sora.

"It is, my good Sir," Sora replied looking down.

"Are you sure we've never met before?" Tai asked, "Because I feel as if I know you..."

Sora shook her head and lied, "No, Sir. I don't believe we've ever met. But it may be my sister, Sora that you are thinking of. My friend Izzy told me that you had saved her when she slipped and fell back on Mount Mihiroshi. I thank you for that. My sister is very dear to me. My sister and I both possess many physical similarities. That could explain why you you feel a bit of recognition towards me."

Tai nodded, "Maybe." He sighed, "You may go now." Sora nodded in satisfaction, _Now that that's taken care of..._ She then turned to find Izzy.

From his bunk, Councilman Jujo watched in interest and concern for his kingdom as the auburn haired trainee headed for the bunk. _Hmm..._ he thought, _Ruki Takenouchi's son... and not his lawful son either... Really? This might be something for me to look into._ He turned back into his room.

"This is a nice bunk you picked, Izzy," Sora said. Inside, each bunk was the exact same setup. Three small beds at each side of the room. Next to each bed was a small table with drawers for personal possessions.

"Yep," Izzy said, "Nice. Six beds. Just like all the others." He smiled and advanced toward a bed at the center. Sora rolled her eyes at her friend's bluntness and attempt at sarcasm.

She tossed her bag onto a nearby bed just as someone else did. She looked up to meet the azure blue eyes of a young blonde. She immediately picked up her things, "I'm sorry. You take this one." He smiled and shook his head.

"No, you go ahead," he turned and put his things on the bed across the room. A younger version of him occupied the bed next to his.

Sora placed her things back on the bed, which was next to Izzy's, and sat down. Next to Izzy, a young dark haired boy, who looked very gentleman-like took the last bed in the row. Across from this boy, was the young fourteen year old who looked very similar to Captain Taichi Kamiya.

"You're that Nick guy. I hope you don't mind me calling you Nick," the blonde across from Sora said to her, "I'm Matt. That's TK." Sora nodded remembering that they had been the only two who could not produce a draft letter.

"I'm Davis," Davis said walking over. He gave a quick glance at TK, deciding that it would be best to keep this blonde in check. He couldn't have him hitting on Kari. TK caught his glance and gulped. Not even one day into camp. Had he managed to make an enemy that quickly?

"I'm Ken," the dark-haired boy smiled and nodded as he neatly placed his things into the table drawers.

"Now that all the introductions are given," Matt said, "Let's-"

"Wait," Davis said, "who's the red-head?"

"Koushiro Izumi, wasn't it?" Ken said joining the rest of the group.

"Just call him Izzy," Sora said, "Everyone does."

"Well," Matt said, "Nice to meet all of you. Now... we have to go eat. I'm starved!"

Laughing and nodding, everyone left the bunk. Sora trailed behind Izzy.

"What's wrong, Sora?" Izzy turned around and whispered.

"I just hope everything goes okay," Sora said, "I'm not exactly too thrilled with this sleeping in the same room as other guys thing. It feels kinda... weird and... not too comforting..."

"It'll be fine," Izzy said, "I wouldn't worry too much. Don't forget. I've got your back." He then, as if remembering something, ran over to the drawer beside his bed. He picked something up that Sora couldn't make out and came running back toward her.

"I almost forgot," he said. Pulling Sora's hand up, he placed a small, intricately designed heart-shaped necklace in it, "Your mother wanted me to give this back to you. She's hoping that it'll bring you good luck."

"Thanks Izzy," Sora smiled. She felt like hugging her friend again, but thought better of it. There might be just the slightest amount of... confusion if someone walked in to see two guys- actually, one girl disguised as a guy and another guy- hugging. She looked up at him, "You're the best, man."

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?!" Nancy Takaishi stormed through the doors of the Ishida Palace waving a piece of paper in her hand.

"What are you, crazy, woman?!" Kingdom Ishida's royal king whirled to find his ex-wife face to face with him. An angry and somewhat scared expression on her face, "How did you get in here?!"

"I entrust my son with you and the next thing I know he's taken off!" Nancy almost screamed. She shoved the paper into Brikriu Ishida's hands and then began to pace the room.

"TK's run off?" Brikriu asked in confusion before even looking at the letter.

"With Matt!" Nancy cried, "Oh... where could they be right now?" She stopped pacing and wrung her hands.

"'Dear Mom,'" King Ishida read, "'Can't explain now, but you'll understand later. Went off with Matt. Will explain everything when I get back. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay, TK.' What does this all mean?"

"You tell me!" Nancy said.

Brikriu's anger began to show as he stomped off toward his son's room.

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked following behind.

"This is ridiculous and absurd," the king huffed, "Yamato is in his room-" He swung open the door only to be faced with an empty room- Matt was nowhere. He scanned the teenage blonde's quarters and his eyes landed on a sheet of paper sitting under a wolf shaped paper weight.

Immediately, both parents ran over to grab the letter, even though it seemed apparent what it would say:

__

Dear Dad,

Couldn't stand the idea of marrying some complete stranger. Decided to go away for a while to cool off and hopefully find true love. Don't try to find me, cause you won't be able to. I'll answer to you when I get back.

Matt

P.S. Took TK with me. Hope Mom doesn't mind.

Nancy put her hands on her hips, "You were saying, My Dear." She gave him one of those "I told you so" glares. Brikriu just glared at her angrily.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Nancy demanded.

The king took a deep breath, "Nothing."

"What?!" Queen Takaishi was taken aback by this comment.

"I said, we do nothing," King Ishida crumpled up the letter and tossed it into the nearest basket. He then walked out of the prince's room followed by his dumbstruck former wife.

"Brikriu, our son's are out in who knows where right now," Nancy cried, "We can't do nothing! What if they're in danger?"

"We can't do anything because Matt and TK are both big boys now," the king said calmly but sternly, "Matt is a young man and TK is becoming one. They need their space and time to themselves every once and a while. Besides, they're old enough to take care of themselves and each other."

"What about the wedding?" Nancy asked, "Yamato is supposed to marry the Princess of Tachikawa soon. What about that?"

"It's been postponed," Brikriu stated, "I received a message from Kingdom Tachikawa that because of the foretold battle, it wouldn't be a good idea for this type of celebration now. At least not until things begin to calm down. And..."

"And what?" Nancy asked.

"Well," Brikriu said, "King Kai of Tachikawa doesn't want to admit it, but... well, it seems that the princess has... runaway. He didn't tell me in person, one of his messengers told me in confidentiality."

"I see," Nancy said. Her face almost softened for a moment there, but became enraged again, "We can't just sit around and do nothing! If there is an impending battle, then our sons are in a lot of danger."

"They're young adults now," King Ishida said, "They have to face the consequences of their own actions."

Queen Nancy was about to protest, but sighed and decided not to. As much as she hated to admit, her former husband was right. Besides that, there was no way the boys could be found if they didn't want to be. She closed her eyes and slumped down into the nearest chair.

__________________________________________________________________________________

And that's the end of this part. I hoped you like it. I'm currently digging more ideas out of my brain and the next part is on it's way. I'm not exactly sure how many more there will be... when I get to writing, I just keep going. And I know that Nicolas wasn't exactly the best name, but it was the first one that popped into my head when I was writing. I'll probably just make Izzy explain that his stuffed bunny used to be named Nicolas... or not... whatever...

Please review. Thanx.


	4. First Exercise

Author's Note: Okay, here it is. It took a while and a _lot_ and I mean a _LOT_ of proof reading, but I've finished the next chapter. I've had to bump the rating up because of a little bit of violence that I didn't really expect to have.

To remind every reader... this is a fic based on Mulan... sort of... I took the concept of Mulan and then in a way twisted it into a whole romance mushy stuff thing... but it's not a pointless romance mushy sappy stuff sort of story... At least that's not how I see it.

Another thing, I don't know much about military tactics and stuff like that, so the training part... I'm going to try to do my best with. Please don't flame me for anything like that. 

Disclaimer: I really don't know what the point is to these, but... I don't own Digimon, I don't own Mulan... The only thing I might own are those made up characters in this fic who aren't from Digimon... So there...

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"Your very first exercise for training will be preparatory warm ups," Tai said to the group, "We will do a series of these exercises each morning for warming up. Since this is your first day, I decided to go easy on all of you. But I'm warning you now, that tomorrow, you will be pushed to train to the limit. Got that?"

"Yes, Sir!" After donning the appropriate training attire, all of the trainees of the camp were all lined up once again to await the instructions of their commander. Fortunately, for Sora, the clothing that the trainees were to wear, consisted simply of a shirt and pants, which easily hid her feminine figure.

"Good," Tai said, "First off, courtesy of the nearby trail going up Mount Mihiroshi, we will jog up to the end point, and then come straight back here. You'll know that you're at the endpoint when you see one of the girls. I will lead you today. Let's move out!" Without so much as a hesitation, Tai took off running toward Mount Mihiroshi which was only a couple feet from their training grounds.

Immediately, the trainees followed behind, many groaning at having to actually scale a mountain, some scoffing at how easy the exercise sounded and others wondering if something else would happen.

Izzy and Sora exchanged glances and followed, both running at a steady pace so that they wouldn't wear themselves out before the end. They both thought that the exercise sounded very simple, but both also figured that there'd probably be some sort of surprise, though neither really cared what it might possibly be. They would take what was thrown at them and do their best.

__

This will be a cinch, Davis Motimiya thought about how he and Tai used to do exercises like this each day just for fun. He, Tai and a group of friends would often jog one of the many trails around Mount Mihiroshi and then afterwards swim in the glistening lake at the base of the mountain. Taking one glance around before entering the trail, he noticed one of Mount Mihiroshi's lakes nearby. He'd probably take a nice dip in it after this exercise to cool off.

__

What have I let Matt talk me into? TK groaned in anger, _This had better not be too bad._ He sighed, _Oh well, I can take this... I'm not weak or anything. Boy is Matt going to pay..._ He glanced over at his older brother, who didn't even seem to care too much about the exercise. Sighing, TK looked back ahead at Tai who had disappeared up the mountain trail already.

"What's the point of us being up here?" Mimi asked for the second time. She slumped down next to a pile of large rocks.

"Well," Kari tossed an oversized bag onto the ground and then began to open it up, "We're supposed to point out the endpoint for them. And Tai decided that he wanted to give those new recruits a bit of a surprise. So we told him we'd come up with something. It's not much, but..."

"They're not going to be too happy about this," Yolei chuckled. She bent down next to Kari and helped her pull out a huge bundle of rope.

"What are you doing?" Mimi asked.

Kari giggled, "They should be here any moment." She handed Mimi the bundle of rope, "When the first person arrives, hand them one of these and direct them further up the mountain and tell them to find me."

"But won't Tai be the first to arrive?" Yolei asked.

Kari shook her head, "No. Tai said that he was going to start by leading them up this mountain, but he's going to drop behind them to make sure no one is slacking. So he's going to be the last person to come up. Plus, he doesn't want to be the first to get caught up in whatever we have planned." She and Yolei began to head up the mountain.

"Where are you two going?" Mimi asked.

"We're going to prepare the next part of this 'simple exercise,'" Kari grinned mischievously, "You'll see when they head back down."

"I'm going to be here by myself?" Mimi asked.

"It'll be alright," Kari assured her, "The boys will arrive soon. Unless you want to switch with Yolei..."

"Nah," Mimi smiled, "I'll stay here. I don't feel like walking anymore."

"I didn't think you would," Kari giggled, "After passing out this morning, I didn't even think you'd really want to come with us up the mountain, but since you insisted..."

"I just felt that it'd be a good idea to help out around here, you know, since you're letting me stay," Mimi smiled, "But what are you going to be doing up there?"

"You'll find out," Yolei said. She turned to Kari, "We better hurry before they get here first." Kari nodded and the two headed off leaving Mimi behind with nothing but the huge bundle of rope.

"Now what?" Mimi stood from where she had sat, but sat back down again, "I wonder when they're going to get here." She looked up at the sky. The sun seemed to have begun moving toward the west. She sighed and stood up restlessly and almost feeling impatient. 

__

So much for rest and relaxation, she thought, _But this isn't too bad. At least I'm not being suffocated by servants and guards, or locked in that big palace all day. I don't like the part where I have to work, but at least I have friends to talk to now... unlike back in that huge palace where the only thing I can talk to is my puppy. Hmm... I miss my puppy..._

She began to wander toward the trail just as the first couple trainees peeked up from the lower part of the mountain. Mimi, however, seemed to be in dreamland thinking and comparing her pretend commoner life, with her life of royalty. _I can't wear anything pretty anymore, _she thought,_ these stupid rags really clash with my hair... but they are quite comfortable... I have to say that the food is great, I never thou-_

Mimi cried out as she unknowingly tripped over herself as she stepped downward on the trail. A pair of strong arms grabbed hers and steadied her. Instead of immediately pulling out of the stranger's grip, she hung on, feeling suddenly, safe and warm.

"Gotcha," a male voice said to her, "You alright?"

"Yes, I am," Mimi looked up into the blue eyes of a handsome blonde young man who looked slightly familiar to her, "Thank you, Sir." She looked down to see that he was still holding her.

"No problem," Matt said, reluctantly dropping his hands. He could feel how delicate this beautiful creature was just by one touch and he could almost swear that he had been holding an angel, "You may want to be a little careful when walking around up here."

"Matt, why'd you stop?" TK was the next to arrived, "Is this the end point?"

"I don't know," Matt said, "Tai- uh, Captain said that we'd know when we saw one of the ladies."

Mimi suddenly recalled what Kari had told her before and snapped out of her little daze of staring at this handsome young man's features. She lifted the rope up and then handed one to Matt, and another to the younger blonde just as the next trainee began to show up. She pointed up the mountain, "Take this and keep going until you see Kari. She'll direct you to where to go."

"I knew something was up," TK groaned, "Matt, I hate you." He headed up the mountain followed by a chuckling Matt.

Yet confused at the young boy's words, Mimi laughed at the two brothers. Remembering her duty, she turned back to hand rope to the next trainee who was just showing up. _Who knew a princess would have to work at all?_ she mused to herself.

"Thank you there, Sweetie," the next trainee said taking the rope Mimi handed him and purposely brushing up against her, "What do you say we head off and have some fun tonight?"

"I, uh..." Mimi felt a little taken aback, but also at the same time, repulsed, "No... I-" She took a step back hoping to put some space between her and him. He advanced toward her. Angrily she thought of letting this man know what he was getting himself into. _You are hitting on the crown princess of Tachikawa,_ she thought, _I could have your head for this._ But she decided against it. For one, it may attract too much attention to her... more than she wanted. Second of all, since nobody had ever seen the Royal Princess of Kingdom Tachikawa, he would undoubtedly not believe her.

"Come on," he smiled slyly at the poor girl, "You know you want to." He took another step forward bringing his face closer to hers.

"N- no, not really," Mimi stuttered. _One more step and I will show you how unladylike a princess can be,_ she thought. She stepped backward again and then craned her neck toward the trail hoping that the next soldiers weren't too far behind. If someone showed up to her aid, then she wouldn't have to end up doing something she knew she'd regret. Fortunately for her, her prayers were answered as an auburn haired trainee and a red-head showed themselves jogging at a constant pace up the mountain.

Sora furrowed her brow at the scene in front of her as her eyes met the pleading ones of the lady being harassed. Immediately, she could see that this trainee, who she recalled being introduced as Joey Miyota, was acting very inappropriately toward this cinnamon haired young girl. Sora glanced at Izzy who saw the same thing, but she took action first. Sora ran ahead of her younger friend and braced herself as she "accidentally" rammed into the unsuspecting young man.

"Hey!" Joey went sprawling onto the ground in less than a second after Sora shoved him. He scrambled to get up, "Watch where you're going, punk!" He glared angrily at Sora.

Sora held up her hand in defense and, not even trying to sound innocent, said, "Sorry."

He huffed angrily and then headed up the trail mumbling angry comments about how he "almost had the girl." Looking back, he saw the auburn haired "boy" and Mimi talking to each other. He muttered a vow of revenge and then turned to finish up the rest of the jog.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked. Mimi blushed and nodded.

"Thank you very much," Mimi said in her sweetest voice, "That wasn't a very comfortable situation." She looked up at the ruby eyes of this trainee. _He's kinda cute,_ Mimi thought to herself, _and he helped me out too. That's a plus._

"Some people can be quite barbaric," Izzy said. He looked around, "Is this the end of the trail?"

On cue, Mimi handed them both rope and pointed up the mountain, "Head up until you see Kari. She'll direct you to where you're supposed to go next."

Sora and Izzy nodded and headed off. Mimi sighed inwardly to herself and turned back to do her thing. _Saved in one day by two different guys,_ she thought, _Wow. And they're both cute too._ She almost felt like giggling as a happy tingling feeling began to overtake her. _Maybe this running away from the palace thing isn't so bad after all. I should do it more often,_ Mimi giggled to herself again at the thought.

~*~*~*~

"Where could she be?" 

Her Royal Highness, Queen Kiya of Tachikawa sat on her bed crying her eyes out. It had almost been a full day since and still there was no sign of the young princess who had disappeared many hours before. She roughly dabbed her handkerchief at her already tear swollen eyes as more tears began to pour down the poor woman's face.

"Crying isn't going to help," King Kai of Tachikawa paced about their royal chamber, practically leaving a burn in the rug beneath him.

"I don't understand," the queen sniffed, "Why would Mimi be so impudent and run away like that? I just don't understand. She's never been like this before. She's never done anything as... as... irresponsible as this before!" As those last couple words were spoken, the woman broke down into harder tears.

His Majesty stopped the pacing and circled the large bed in their chamber around to his wife. Sympathetically, he wrapped his arms around the delicate body of the queen and hugged her tightly. He rubbed her shoulders lovingly in an attempt to quiet the wild wails that could be heard all the way down the corridor of the palace to the servants' quarters.

"There, there," the king reassured his spouse, as he suppressed his own need for comforting. He reasoned that it would be best for at least one of them to remain clear headed and calm. And as the husband and the king, he would have to take on that duty. He squeezed the woman's shoulders succeeding in calming her emotions just enough so that people around wouldn't hear them, "I'm sure Mimi is alright. I've already sent a few of our best men to search for her. They'll bring her back safely. I assure you, dear."

"Really?" Kiya wiped at her tear streaked face with the palm of her hand as her cries became less hysterical.

"Have I ever lied to you?" King Kai smiled, "They'll find her. And she will be safe. Don't you worry." But though he sounded confident for his wife's sake, deep down, he was having many doubts. He knew his own daughter well enough to know that she would not be able to survive on her own outside of the palace, having been raised with all the luxuries that royalty was given. And even if she were to find herself a place to stay, her stubbornness would never allow her to be found, not even by her own father, if she chose to keep herself hidden.

He looked down at the fragile woman lying in his arms, now asleep from being worn out by her tears. Mimi and her mother were identical in personality and physical stamina. They were both delicate creatures who were to be given the land's finest and most luxurious things. He sighed with only the hope that Mimi would be able to fend better than he expected.

~*~*~*~

"What is this?" Joey asked angrily arriving at the final endpoint. He looked around and saw Matt and TK both walking back toward the trail. Both had around their necks the rope that Mimi had handed them... plus two huge logs tied to each end.

"This is a part of your training," Yolei said. She pointed at the huge pile of logs on the ground, "Get yourself two logs, tie them to the rope and carry them back down. You will receive further directions when you return back to camp."

Joey shook his head, "No. Captain Kamiya didn't say anything about hauling logs back down to camp."

"He didn't say there wouldn't be logs to haul back to camp either," Yolei countered, "Just be happy these logs are only a foot long and a foot in diameter, weighing no more than thirty pounds. You can carry thirty pounds easily. But since you have to carry two, I'm sure sixty pounds won't tire you out that easily either. Having them tied to rope and draped around your neck will make it all the easier." She folded her arms over her chest and then gave him a look as if asking him to challenge her assumption.

"Why should I do this? You're not Captain Kamiya," Joey asked arrogantly.

"Now what?" Sora whispered to Izzy as they arrived at the endpoint. Taking only one glance at the area, Izzy proceeded to tie the logs to his rope. Sora shrugged and followed.

"Just do it," Yolei ordered Joey. She looked at the other two, "I didn't tell you what to do yet."

"It's not exactly a mystery as to what we are to do," Izzy answered without lifting his head, "Judging from this pile of logs and the rope that we were supplied with, one can clearly conclude that our task is to tie these logs-" he pointed to the pile "-to the ends of this-" he held up the heavy rope in his hands "-rope and carry it back to camp." He tightened the knot around the two logs and then draped the rope around his neck.

"I'm impressed," Yolei complimented.

"Let's not forget the fact that we saw Matt and TK heading down the trail just a while ago with logs tied to their ropes," Sora smiled and stood up next to Izzy.

"Uh, yeah, that too," Izzy said smiling sheepishly. Sora nudged him and they headed back toward the trail.

"And you almost had me fooled to think that you were one of those really smart guys too," Yolei sighed, but smiled at the red head. 

"On the contrary," Sora spoke, "Izzy does have a lot of brains."

Yolei just smiled and turned back to Joey, "Well, are you going to or not? Or am I going to have to resort to doing something I know you'll regret?"

"What would you do to me?" Joey glared angrily at her, "I'm shaking in my boots."

"Just do what she says," Sora chimed in before taking an extra step. Izzy nodded in agreement, "It'd be the smart thing to do, you know." They headed down the mountain, Sora in front of Izzy.

More trainees began to reach the endpoint, while Joey still stood his ground. Along with him, some of his little friends sided with him refusing to take orders from a simple young girl. "Captain Kamiya said nothing about hauling logs."

Yolei rolled her eyes just as Kari approached. "I think that's all of them," Kari said as she passed one of the boys. She took one look at a group of five who seemed to hold and air of egotism, "What's going on?"

"They're refusing to complete the exercise," Yolei explained.

"Reason?" Kari asked more to the boys than to Yolei.

"Because 'Captain Kamiya didn't say anything about logs,'" Yolei imitated the boys, "Geez, it's like they think we made this up just to torture them, which I'd happily do so." She turned to the boys, "Do you think we'd be telling you to do this if Captain Kamiya didn't plan it? How ignorant can you be?" She rolled her eyes.

"Well," Kari said to the five boys, "I'm only going to say this once. This exercise was planned by Captain Kamiya and we were asked to carry it out for him. He will be up here in a matter of seconds. I'm going to give you a chance to get over there and complete this portion of the exercise. If you do so, I'll not mention this to the captain. You give me more trouble and I'll see to it that he hears about this."

The boys exchanged skeptical glances, but then heard the sound of running steps coming closer. With only a moment's hesitation, they put their lightning speed to work and immediately hopped over to the logs, tied them to each end of their rope and then scurried down the mountain trail passing by the cheery Captain Taichi Kamiya.

"I see everything went well," Tai nodded at the girls. The two exchanged glances and nodded giving the older boy a smile each. He looked at the remaining logs, "So this was what surprise you had planned. Better than nothing, I guess."

"Hey, it's their first day," Kari said shrugging, "Even the surprise extra should be easy on them. Besides, we only had so much time to plan."

"Correction," Yolei chimed in, "_I_ only had so much time to plan."

Tai nodded, "That's true. I _did_ say that I'd be easy on them." He walked over to the pile of logs, "I'll grab the rest of these. You two go ahead and-"

"You can grab two and head down to finish off your portion of this warm up exercise," Kari said, "Yolei and I have the rest taken care of." She walked among the shrubbery and heaved out a flat barrow with the help of her friend.

Tai nodded seemingly impressed, "So you _do_ have everything under control, squirt. I guess having you around isn't that bad of an idea after all."

"It never was," Kari said smirking, "I told Dad that you'd need help. Actually, Joe might be the one who'll need help in a little bit. I hope he can handle all those boys."

"We found all these logs already cut up in the camp building," Yolei said, "And we found ourselves a barrow to heave it all up here. You wanted us to give the new recruits a surprise for their very first exercise, so here you are."

Tai nodded.

"Yeah," Kari said, "Next time, though, I think you should have them all cut down their own firewood. Oh, and tell them about any impending surprises. Just so nobody gets confused."

"You better get back to camp," Yolei said as she carried the logs onto the barrow.

Tai nodded, "Yeah." He tied two logs onto the last rope that Mimi had handed him and then headed back down. He stopped in mid jog and turned back, "I'll send someone up to help you out. Oh, and that girl, uh, I don't think I ever caught her name, but anyways, she'll be up in a little bit."

"Okay, Tai, but you don't have to send-" Kari called back to him, but noticed that he was already out of earshot, "-anyone."

"Should we wait?" Yolei asked, "Cause he doesn't know about that other smooth trail that we can wheel this thing down on."

"That's Tai for you," Kari said, "Clearly clueless. We might as well wait for whoever Tai decides to send. Don't want one of those poor boys wandering around here and getting lost. Not even Davis."

"Maybe that other boy," Yolei giggled, "I think his name was Joey Miyota. I'm sure we can all do without him and his little punk gang." The two girls laughed aloud.

"The next part of your exercise," Joe Kido said nervously, "is to split the two logs you have into fours. As easy as that. Then you take your pieces into the mess hall and place them near the kitchen."

There seemed to be a chorus of groans as each trainee picked up the small axe supplied to them when they had arrived back at the training grounds.

"This is quite an exercise Captain Kamiya has thought up," Councilman Jujo stepped up next to Joe, "I'm impressed. The first day and he already has these future soldiers working."

"Yeah, some idea," Joe nodded pushing his glasses up on this nose. He decided against telling the councilman that this idea should be part credited to the girls. He'd leave that up to Tai to say anything. He turned to the older man, "I'm going to head back into my bunk. He'll be back soon to supervise." He bowed slightly in respect to the councilman and then left the training area. 

After a moment, Councilman Jujo turned and headed back into his own bunk. But not before taking a quick suspicious glance at one of the trainees. _That Takenouchi boy,_ he thought. He was determined to keep his eye on him. Something just didn't seem right about that boy.

"I don't get what the importance of this exercise is," complained one of the trainees.

"There's gotta be some reason," someone else groaned as he brought his axe down onto the log at the same time others did, creating an echo of the sound of splitting logs.

"After this, we might be able to take a nice long swim in that nearby lake," Davis pointed out toward the mountain. He could just feel the coolness of the water against his skin already.

"That's a good idea."

"It's so hot out here, I'd like to take a swim now."

"What lake?"

"You mean the one south of here?"

"Let's get this done so we can go."

"What if there's more to our training today?"

Another chorus of groaning was heard.

Sora chuckled. "What?" Izzy asked her. He raised his small axe and then brought it down barely splitting the log into perfect halves. Having grown up on the outskirts of Mount Mihiroshi Village like Sora, his family couldn't rely on the market place all the time for daily necessities such as firewood. Splitting firewood came easily for him.

Sora shook her head and in a soft tone whispered, "I've never seen such a big crowd of babies before."

"Hey," Izzy tried to defend, "Just because you're enjoying this, doesn't mean everyone else is."

"Who said I was enjoying this?" Sora said, "I'm actually fearing for my life every second right now, but I'm not complaining about it." She chuckled at the other trainees who were angrily chopping away at the wood they brought down from the mountain.

"Well, you kinda-" Izzy began.

"Yeah, yeah," Sora cut him off, "I brought this on myself. Go figure. You try to do something good and you get someone else nagging you day in and day out." She rolled her eyes and brought the axe down swiftly onto the log chopping it smoothly in half. Though she was a young girl, soon to be lady, she often took it upon herself to take care of the daily house chores which included anything from feeding the livestock to tending to the garden to... splitting wood for fire. Because she was her family's only daughter, her father, though disapproved, didn't mind the extra hands to help with work. Like Izzy, splitting wood wasn't a difficult task.

"Well, don't complain and no one will nag you," Izzy joked, "Besides, I promised your parents that I'd look out for you."

"Since when did you start looking out for me?" Sora retorted, "As far as I remember, I'm the one who is always gets you out of tight jambs."

"Remember a certain incident this morning involving your identity?" Izzy brought up. He smirked knowing that, though her expression didn't show it, he had her in check.

"Okay, so I faulted a little."

"A little?" Izzy raised his eyebrow, "You were practically stuttering and shaking in your boots."

"I could've handled it."

"Handled what?" Sora and Izzy shot their heads up to see a blonde standing above them with eight pieces of carelessly chopped wood in his arms.

"Wha-?" Sora began with an unnoticeable look of panic on her face. 

"The exercise," Izzy chimed in immediately, "He, uh had a little problem that I had to help him with."

Matt shrugged at the two and headed off toward the mess hall with his younger brother following. Sora glanced at Izzy as he gave her an "I told you so" smirk and then walked ahead of her. Sora twisted her face into an angry expression and then proceeded to follow, but upon taking her next couple steps, she found herself sprawled on the ground, the firewood in hand flying out in front of her.

Sora looked down toward her feet, then her gaze traveled up to face the devilish grin of Joey Miyota and a couple others standing around him. He had tripped her and was now basking in his notorious action.

"S- uh, Nick!" Izzy turned and ran to his friend, "You okay?" He bent down and helped Sora to her feet. Matt and TK stepped up next to the two.

"What did you do that for?" Matt asked angrily.

Sora held up her hand to indicate to Matt to back off. She bent and began to pick up her pieces of wood as Joey spoke, "And eye for an eye." She took a deep breath to suppress her anger. The last thing she wanted to do was lash out at this jerk and tear his head off, which she would've gladly done so, if not for the fact that it might end up in consequences she'd rather avoid.

"So I guess we're even now," Sora said coldly, "I sent you flying to the ground earlier, you send me to the ground now." She proceeded to turn and walk away.

"Nuh-uh," Joey said shaking his head, "You don't get off that easily."

"What do you want?" Sora asked feeling irritated, "I already apologized and you already got me back."

"You got in the way," Joey said, "Don't think I'm going to let you off that easily." From where he was from, nobody ever messed with him. Joey was one of the tough guys of one of the smaller villages outside of the Tachikawa Market Square. It was known that he always got his way no matter what.

"What's going on?" Tai jogged over to the group after he dropped his two logs onto the ground, "There isn't going to be trouble now, is there?" He glanced from Joey's devious smirk over to Sora's slowly fading cold glare.

"Nothing's wrong, Captain," Joey said innocently, "We were just getting acquainted. Weren't we Takenouchi, was it?"

Sora nodded, "Yeah, we were just getting acquainted."

"Good," Tai said, "I don't need there being any problems in my camp." He then turned to Sora and seemingly smiled, "I need one or two of you to head up the mountain and help the girls bring the rest of the firewood down. Don't worry, they have a barrow. You won't have to carry anything." He then walked off and announced to every trainee that they would take a quick break and continue the next exercise later.

Sora handed Izzy the firewood in her arms, "I'll go. You stay around and get a quick rest before the next exercise." Izzy felt like protesting, but he decided against it. Once Sora decided something, she wouldn't change her mind. Besides that, he knew he wasn't exactly as physically strong as Sora was. After that long scale up the mountain, he knew resting a little would be better than tiring himself out before anymore vigorous training.

"I'll come with you," Matt tossed his firewood into TK's arms and followed behind before TK had a chance to protest. The young blonde sighed and turned to follow Izzy into the mess hall as he angrily plotted ways of hurting his brother.

"It totally bites being _his_ brother," TK muttered.

"It's no picnic being Sora's friend either," Izzy chuckled at the younger boy who suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What was that?" TK asked raising an eyebrow.

Izzy's jaw almost dropped when he realized what he had just said. Gulping, he turned to TK and chuckled, "Uh, I mean, yeah, Sora... um, Nicolas's half sister... She and Nick are always getting into trouble a-and... I have to get them out of jambs all the time." Izzy felt himself sweating bullets and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

TK nodded. He couldn't help but feel a little skeptical of Izzy's explanation, but he decided that there was no reason for this red head to lie to anyone... or was there...? "Yeah," TK said. He tossed Izzy an unexpected skeptical glance, but then shook his head and continued to walk into the mess hall.

Izzy let out an inaudible sigh of relief. He felt like bursting into laughter. _Lucky Sora didn't see that,_ Izzy thought.

~*~*~*~

The aftershock of the cold stinging slap to her face remained as she rubbed the too familiar bruise that began to form. Her angry eyes pierced through the darkness as her glare remained stationed on one thing, or rather one person. Neither tears nor a look of sadness could be seen in the anger engulfed eyes of the young fourteen year old Kit Li. But if one looked close enough, anyone would've been able to see the loneliness embedded deep within the rage that had been there since the beginning of her lifetime.

She would've made a plan to betray him already if not for the fact that she had vowed an oath of loyalty toward this horrid man. She could remember vividly that he was the one who had taken her in as a young child. It was he who had sheltered her and raised her... but it was also he who had tortured her since the day they had met. He had beaten her and treated her no better than the scum he saw her as.

But on the upside, he had thought her useful for the rest of his plan to take over the peaceful kingdom he planned to invade soon enough. To the horrendous leader of the Kirik Clan, this young girl proved far more efficient than many of this horrendous clan's strongest man. She was intelligent and this fact could be used to outwit the inhabitants of this continent, whom he already saw as inferior to himself.

Though she had been a member of this infamous clan for nearly ten years since her childhood, there still remained a goodness in her heart that lashed out at evil and cruelty. It was this warmness and goodness in her that often caused the painful beatings and it was because of her pity and sympathy for the helpless villagers that brought on the stinging slap she had just received only seconds before.

The clan had already succeeded in raiding many of the small villages that lay on the barbarians' way toward the vast Kingdom of Tachikawa. Each and every one of these villages had endured the doom of being scorched to the ground into a heap of ashes. Many of those villagers came to untimely ends.

Kit had unwittingly took pity upon some of the children and women of their most recent pillage and set them free to escape to the nearest village in which she was sure Kahn did not plan to scorch to the ground. One of her fellow clan members had witnessed this act and in a matter of seconds, the Kirik Clan leader had punished her with a slap to her face and some beatings to the stomach.

Kit raised herself from the rock she had been sitting at. She glared angrily at anyone who dared question her actions. She may have been just a young girl, but even many of the clan's strongest men dare not to get in her way. So snitching became a regular act of the clan's men to Kahn. He was the only one who showed no mercy and no sign of fear for the young girl. He was the great Kirik Clan leader who feared nothing... Why would he show any sign of fear to anyone at all?

The young dark haired girl left the clearing that the clan had chosen to rest at. She turned her back on the group and was almost sure that the second she left, one of these rascals would go off and report to Myotis Kahn about her temporary departure. She didn't care. It had become a daily routine for her already. No matter what she did, Kahn would find a reason to punish her severely. 

She could try to get away, but she had nowhere to go. Her clothing were those of a barbarian. The people would only see her as a vicious pillager of the Kirik Clan. One of the barbaric thieves who stole and killed. Though many times, she was the one who had kept many of the villagers alive by warning the villagers ahead of time via her most trusted feline friend Gatomon and also by holding the men of the Kirik Clan back without their knowledge.

If it was something she didn't like, it was seeing the horror of people dying and families being separated in the most horrible ways. She would know of the suffering of being separated from loved ones... She herself had experienced the same pain before she met Kahn... 

But those were memories of the past. Memories she had forgotten long ago. She had forsaken any memories of the warmth she used to feel... She had become accustomed the life of the Kirik Clan which was mostly bullying the helpless and committing evil deeds... There were only those rare times when she'd take pity upon those unlucky victims. As the years passed by, she had become less caring about what happened to the people the Kirik Clan chose to torture... but her goodness was beginning to show once again as she watched the helpless victims in each village...

Expressionlessly, she called upon her friend, a small white cat-like creature as she stared blankly out at the lake, with her whistle. No more than a second after she let out the high pitched sound inaudible to the human ear, did a rustling in the bushes catch her attention. In a split second, her friend appeared rubbing against her legs lovingly.

Gatomon had been with her since she was a young girl. That was a reason why one small kitty was her most trusted friend. Her only friend. The cat had appeared to her the day she was separated from her family... which was also the fateful day she had met up with the terrible Myotis Kahn. But the Gatomon was kept secret from the dark leader... Something had told Kit that letting this horrible man find her only friend would prove fatal or maybe something worse than death...

Kit bent down and nodded at the creature. She didn't know how to describe it, but this animal who she had entrusted many errands in, was no ordinary cat. To her, this kitty was very mystical. With the help of the little feline, Kit had succeeded in saving many of the pillaged villages' inhabitants.

Kit glanced around the area before slipping a sheet of paper into the gloved palms of this mystical kitty. This would be another group of villagers saved if Gatomon succeeded in delivering the message.

"You know what to do," Kit nodded as the kitty purred and then turned to scurry away. Satisfied with her work, the young girl raised to her feet and turned to head back to the clearing ready to brace herself for more beatings. Her only hope was that Gatomon would get to those villagers soon enough...

_________________________________________________________________________________

And that's the end of that part. Again, I'm sorry it didn't come out sooner, I just didn't have enough confidence that it would be presentable, so my paranoid self was forced to proof read it over and over again. I even changed it a couple times.

So, who is this mysterious girl, Kit? He he... she doesn't exactly play a big role, but her role in the story is equally important to the rest...

And I know that Gatomon belongs to Kari, but in this story, Gatomon is a kitty who is a good friend to my original character. Maybe in the end, I'll give her back to Kari. I don't even know how the rest of this story will end up...

I don't know how it happened, but I just had this stupid idea to put Gatomon into the fic... At first, my idea was to make Gatomon Myotis Kahn's little animal friend, like how that bird was that bad guy's pet in Disney's Mulan or like how she was one of Myotismon's little people... but I decided against it and instead had her kinda working for Kit, who is one of the big bad guy's little people. Flame if you must, I know it was a bad idea, but I wanted to test it out. I just hope you like it. 

So please review. And thank you so much for your reviews before...


	5. End of the Day

Author's Note: Ha HA!! You all probably thought I was dead or something! But nope, I'm back and I'm continuing this fic and all those other fics I've begun. *choruses of groans are heard in background* Oh come on, I know you all love me! *sound of crickets chirping* -_-

Um, anyway, to recap, since it's been such a looooong time since I've posted. I sincerely apologize for my long time absence also. I've been buried knee deep in homework and my writer's block doesn't help out that much either. Also, for a couple months, I'd lost interest in Digimon and had become a DragonBall Z/GT fan. And I mean, big fan. But now that the third season of Digimon has begun, I'm totally in love with it. Especially Henry, he's soooo cool!! I've gone a little out on the whole couples thing though.

So anyways, from where 'Pride and Love' left off last, the first day of training had just begun. Sora and Izzy both have a handful trying to keep her identity a secret, though they have already stumbled up a couple times. Our two blonde cuties are also hiding a secret... And let us not forget all about little ol' Mimi. And what's this? Another original character? And who is she?

Now, also, the usual notes I leave for this fic... I have no clue as to the names of any of the digi-destineds' parents. So the names in here are all made up. I've also found that I had to bump the rating up because of some certain things that some may find inappropriate. If you feel offended by anything, I sincerely apologize right now. I don't mean to offend anyone, but then again, I can't please everyone either.

I hope you accept my apologies for my absence from FF.Net for so long and for anything else that I may have to apologize for. I can take criticism, so if anybody wants to... I know this isn't exactly the best chapter. I've been going over it, over and over and over and... well, you get the idea.

On with the fic before I bore anyone else.

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah.... (it's here, isn't that good enough?)

___________________________________________________________________

The young prince and the auburn haired trainee walked in silence up the mountain trail on their way to find the girls. Matt looked at the person next to him. The silence was making him feel very awkward. Finally, he spoke up, "So, what happened?"

"What?" Sora looked at him in confusion.

"Back there," Matt said, "How come that guy, Joey Miyota tripped you? Why didn't you do anything about it?"

Sora nodded in understanding, "Oh that... Well, like he said, 'an eye for an eye.'" She shrugged unenthusiastically as she side stepped a few jagged rocks she hadn't noticed the first time she went up the mountain.

"I don't follow," Matt said. Instead of walking around, he'd completely missed the jagged rocks and stumbled over himself. Fortunately for him, Sora grasped tightly to his upper arm and pulled him back up to his feet, steadying him before letting go.

Sora sighed as she continued to trudge along the rocky mountain trail, "It was nothing. I, uh, I 'accidentally' shoved him earlier when we were jogging up the trail. I guess he just wanted to get me back." She didn't know whether it'd be a good idea to tell this boy everything that happened. The young cinnamon haired girl may not be very appreciative of it. Not everyone liked to be talked about, especially if it were about something as embarrassing as being harassed by some rascal.

"What did he do-?" As soon as he finished his sentence, Matt again stumbled over the rocky trail. Sora rolled her eyes and helped steady him once more as the young prince mentally wondered why it was so much harder to walk up the mountain, when he had so easily jogged up only a while ago. Was this not the same trail they had taken earlier?

"Walk much?" Sora stood still giving the blonde an odd look.

"I'm fine," Matt shrugged, "Probably a little fatigued from jogging."

"Whatever," Sora nodded, accepting his response. The two continued on toward the top, but not in silence as Sora had hoped.

"So, what did he do?" Matt continued to pursue, this time watching his footing as he spoke.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well," Matt furrowed his brow, "You don't exactly seem like someone who would do anything without a reason. He must have done something to make you have to shove him. So, what did he do?"

Sora shook her head, "Really? I don't look like the type of person who would just go off and shove someone when I feel like it?" Matt shook his head. _Hmm,_ Sora thought, _that's not what Izzy usually tells me._

"So what'd he do?" Matt insisted.

Sora shrugged, "It's no big deal."

"He seemed to make it a pretty big deal," Matt countered.

Sora stopped for a moment and looked at Matt. Then she just shrugged and began walking again. "He was getting a little too close to one of the ladies and she seemed to be calling for help," Sora explained, "Don't say anything to them though. I don't know if she'd rather anyone know about it."

"Oh," Matt smirked, "Was this a lady that you have your eye on?"

"Of course not!" Sora cried out almost too quickly, "Why would I have my eye on any of those girls if-?" She stopped herself immediately, "I- uh..." _Oops,_ she thought, _Spoke too quickly._

Matt took a step back giving Sora a surprised look, "Look Takenouchi, I'm sorry. You didn't have to get so worked up... I won't pry any further on this subject..." He then squinted at her curiously because of her sudden reaction. It was then that a thought hit him and he mentally slapped himself. He absently took a step further from his companion, "You didn't exactly seem like the type to, um... Well... But I understand. It's no... problem."

"It's not like that," Sora said trying to cover her fault. She sighed exasperatedly. The last thing she wanted was for any of the guys here to think that she was... "different." But of course she _was _different. She was a girl disguised as a guy... as opposed to the actual guys at this camp. But at a time like this, she wanted to be able to blend in with the rest. She opened her mouth to speak, "It's not what you're thinking-" and under her breath she muttered "-I don't even know _how_ you came about with that idea." She sighed and spoke up again, "I, uh... I have a girl back home already..." _Oh good, _she thought sarcastically, _Nice cover up. Why not just tell him that you're happily married with four children and a three legged dog? Well, looks like he's buying it though._

Matt nodded, "Oh." He couldn't help but to feel like this person was not telling him the whole truth, but then again, he, himself was hiding a secret from everyone at camp too. And a pretty big secret at that.

"Let's hurry it up so we can get back," Sora said. She began to jog up the trail with Matt following behind her. After thinking about her explanation, some thoughts began to cross his mind. It had never occurred to him until now, because of Sora's careless cover-up, that somebody else on this training camp, besides him and TK, could possibly be hiding a secret.

He shook his head. _Don't pry into others business,_ the young blonde thought. He too was hiding a secret and he knew that he wouldn't appreciate someone prying into his business. He decided not to dwell on that matter, although his curiosity continued to tug at his mind.

"Whoever Tai decided to ask to come up here," Kari said sitting herself down onto the barrow, "is taking his sweet little time." She turned to Yolei who yawned in boredom. Mimi sat resting her whole body against the logs at the brink of sleep.

"Why don't we just head down and hope that whoever gets here can find his way back?" Yolei asked, "I'm tired."

"You and me both, girl," Kari said. She looked at Mimi, "The poor girl. She must be dead tired by now." She shook her head and chuckled inwardly at the muffled mumbling escaping from the dainty young princess's lips as she drifted into the twilight moment right before a person fell asleep. 

Kari furrowed her brow a little catching bits and pieces of the mumbling. Something about a little puppy and beautiful silk clothing-

"I think I hear footsteps," Yolei stood from where she was sitting and walked over to the trail, "I say we make him push the barrow."

"Good idea, but isn't that what they're here for anyway?" Kari said standing next to Yolei who just shrugged. She watched as two boys began to ascend to where the girls were somewhat resting, "He sent two?" 

Mimi, realizing that the other girls had walked away, sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked out in front of her as a blonde boy and an auburn haired trainee arrived. "Well, it's about time," Mimi stated abruptly.

"Captain Kamiya told us to come up and help you ladies out," Matt said smiling warmly.

"Took you long enough," Yolei rolled her eyes, "Take the barrow and follow us." She and Kari headed off in a different direction from the trail.

"Where are we going?" Sora began as she took one side of the barrow. Matt took the other side.

"There's a smoother trail we can take back down," Kari said, "It'll be faster and easier."

"I just want to get back and take a nice long dip in that lake I saw when we came up here," Mimi stretched her arms and caught a glimpse of the blonde boy as his cheeks became highlighted with the faintest tint of red. She giggled at the thought of the boy blushing about her one little statement, but then became confused when the other boy didn't even show a sign of nervousness at all.

"I have never been so tired," Sora sighed flopping herself onto her bed, "I could go to sleep for days." She extended her arms to stretch and then yawned to prove her statement. She tugged at the collar of her shirt to air out some of the heat from the day's training.

"I don't want to imagine how it's going to be tomorrow," TK leaned back against the wall. He didn't even bother to shoot his brother any more death glares, though he was still a teensy bit ticked. He'd been scowling at Matt all day and he just felt too tired to do anything right now.

Izzy agreed, "Captain Kamiya did say that he was going easy on us today. One can only assume that our training will be much more vigorous for the days following."

"Well," Matt stretched, "We'll think about it when it comes tomorrow. Are you all still too tired to take a nice swim?"

"Yeah," Davis chimed in agreement, "The lake looked like it'd be cool enough to take a nice bath in. Especially after the long day we had."

Sora's eyes widened at the words 'swim' and 'bath.' She immediately sat up and there was a look of panic on her face as she looked to Izzy for help. Izzy, despite the amused grin on his face, also felt a wave of panic. This was also one of the things that he had neglected to think about.

"But, uh, didn't the girls say that they were going to take a swim?" Sora recalled something that Mimi had said. She hoped to keep away from having to bathe with these boys for as long as possible. At least until she could figure out what to do...

Matt smirked at the thought. That same faint tint of redness appeared upon his cheeks again, but he shook his head, "They did plan to. That was hours ago after our first exercise, though. I'm pretty sure they're done by now." He chuckled as his brother and Davis jokingly snapped their fingers and faked a disappointed, "Darn!"

"Is something wrong?" Ken asked noticing Sora's face become a couple shades paler.

"Uh, n- nothing's wrong," Sora squeaked, "Nothing at all."

The boys, minus Izzy, all gave each other confused looks. One thought crossed their minds as they pondered the actions of this Nicolas Takenouchi ever since he'd shown up at the camp, _Weird._

"Well, come on then," Matt said heading toward the door. He dismissed the thought, remembering that he'd promised not to pry into anyone else's business. But what if there was something _really_ wrong with this kid? He shook his head and decided not to dwell on that matter too long. Opening the door, he stepped out while stating, "After that work out, the feel of cool water on ourselves will feel great." He was followed by Davis, Ken and TK.

"You two coming?" TK stopped and looked in. There was something about these two that gave him a funny feeling. He just couldn't seem to put his finger on it...

"You go ahead," Izzy said, "We'll catch up." TK gave Izzy another skeptical glance, but walked out the door.

"Izzy," Sora hissed, being careful to keep her voice as low as possible, "What am I going to do? I can't bathe with them!"

"Maybe they won't notice anything," Izzy shrugged and smirked deviously, trying to contain his impending fits of laughter.

Sora narrowed her eyes. If looks could kill... _Well, looks can't,_ Sora thought. Evil thoughts floated through her mind of how to dispose of her best friend, _But **I** can._ She took a step toward Izzy, intending to strangle him. The only problem she'd have would be where to hide the body.

"Come on, Sora," Izzy took a step back from his friend after catching a glimpse of that murderous expression on her face, "Can't you take a little joke?"

"I don't know," Sora spoke unenthusiastically, "Can you take a little pain?"

"Okay, okay," Izzy chuckled, "I'm sorry. But you have to admit, that was quite humorous how you became entirely pallid when they mentioned bathing." He shut his mouth as soon as Sora's murderous glare returned to her face.

"Izzy..." Sora hissed.

"Look, this is a dilemma that neither of us had considered," Izzy said slumping down onto his bed, "Something _you_ didn't take into account when you decided to 'play hero.'"

Sora pouted. Her eyes no longer narrowed in anger. Instead, they were downcast grimly. Izzy was right... She was in deeper than she had thought. She groaned as she laid down onto her bed, "What was I thinking?"

"That's the thing, Sora," Izzy said, "You _weren't_."

"Could you be a little less supportive?" Sora said sarcastically. She covered her face with her hands and let out another groan. She could remember when she had made her decision to take her father's place. That was the _only_ thing she had thought about.

"I could undertake that suggestion," Izzy shrugged innocently, "But at a time like this, I think what you need _is_ my support."

"Argh!!!" Sora had pulled her pillow over her head, screaming in frustration. What was she going to do? She could go on the rest of the training without bathing. That would be disgusting and she wasn't about to walk around for the next couple days, or maybe even weeks, all sweaty and stinky.

"All I wanted to do was take Papa's place so that he'd be safe," Sora almost cried out, "No other thought really crossed my mind at the time." She removed the pillow and looked at Izzy, "What do I do now?"

"Here's an idea," Izzy said, "I'll go ahead and if anyone asks, I'll just tell them that you had something important to attend to."

"Will it work?" Sora asked.

"Hopefully it will," Izzy said, "If you still think you need to take a dip in water to cool off, we'll go tonight, when the probability of someone being at the lake is very improbable."

"I guess..." Sora sighed sadly. It'd be the best solution. So when nighttime came, she and Izzy could- _Hold on a second!_ Sora did a double take and thought over the words Izzy had spoken, "Izzy? '_We'll_ go?'"

Izzy nodded, not catching on to what Sora was implying, "Tonight." He was about to add something else to his statement, but didn't get a chance to do so as a stinging slap landed on his shoulder followed by a shocked sounding, "Izzy!"

"What?!"

"What do you mean 'we'll go?'" Sora asked not stopping to think about why her friend had made that suggestion in the first place.

"I'll go so I can keep a look out," Izzy sighed exasperated, "What did you think I was implying? I'm not a pervert you know." He rubbed his arm, "I can barely classified as one. You know me better than that!"

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking," Sora said. She hung her head, feeling a little embarrassed. Under her breath, however, she muttered, "You're still male."

"I heard that," Izzy said crossing his arms.

"Sorry," Sora mumbled, "Too much going on lately. You can't blame me for being a little tense."

"You could go and search out your own water source far away from here... if you don't trust me," Izzy offered, "While all the guys are off in the closer one. But from what I know, the second closest lake from here is relatively distant from the training grounds."

"I said I'm sorry," she sighed, "We'll go tonight," she added unenthusiastically, "It doesn't look like I have much of a choice. Finding another lake close by is probably one thing I don't want to do yet. By the time I do find one, it'll be past lights out and I'll be in trouble."

"It's settled then," Izzy said, "Problem is, we'll have to continue this escapade until the termination of our training. Fortunately, that time shouldn't be too far from now. Considering that we only have so many days left until the Kirik Clan arrives at the front."

"I'll think of something," Sora said.

"The last time I heard that from you," Izzy said heading toward the door, "I ended up having to get you out of a somewhat considerable situation." He darted out of the room just as a shoe went flying in his direction only to hit the closed door and thump to the ground.

~*~*~*~

Dr. Miko Kido surveyed the land before them. The lands outside the walls of his kingdom were so still, with only an occasional bird flying by, or a few unseen creatures scrittering into their nighttime hiding places. The land vegetation (grass, shrubs, trees and such), swayed slightly in the light breeze blowing from the easterly direction.

Though it seemed quiet and peaceful, the royal minister of medicine could not suppress the nagging feeling inside of him. Something didn't seem right... something didn't feel right. And he bet every bone in his body that it had something to do with the Kirik Clan.

"You're worrying about the battle before us," General Tejaka Kamiya startled the older man as he stepped noiselessly next to him.

Dr. Kido didn't respond, though he was sure that the general understood his silent meaning.

"The Kirik Clan are known to be very vicious," Tejaka nodded, "Strong and almost super human. This is going to be one difficult battle. I know what you're thinking." He glanced at the blue haired doctor once to confirm his assumption.

Dr. Kido nodded, "Something doesn't feel right."

"Their ships," General Kamiya stated, "The Kirik Clan's ships were reported to be, still, miles away from the continent shorelines... Something about that report doesn't seem right." He sighed, "What do you think?"

Dr. Kido made no movement, but he spoke, "I'm not the official tactics minister. But I am an expert on human anatomy and physiology. According to history encounters with people of that sort... A clan of that caliber, of that strength, aren't likely to still be miles away from the shoreline. They would spend days _and_ nights rowing across that ocean just to get here. It's taking them too long. I had expected them to have reached the continent by now. Something must be up."

"I agree," General Kamiya nodded. He squinted at the horizon as if he were expecting the troops of the Kirik Clan to appear before the front at any moment. But all he saw was the peaceful flatlands outside the walls of Kingdom Tachikawa and it's neighbors.

"First thing in the morning," Tejaka seemed to be speaking to himself more than to his long time friend standing next to him, "I will take a third of our soldiers and head outside of the kingdoms... Something just doesn't seem right and I'm going to find out what it is."

Dr. Kido wanted to protest to this action, but he remained quiet. Having known the general for such a long time, Miko knew that he wouldn't be able to talk Tejaka Kamiya out of anything he'd already set his mind on. Oddly enough, it had been his instincts and determination that had kept the kingdoms protected for so long, twenty years ago. All the doctor did was nod.

"You will stay here and await my son's arrival after he has trained his soldiers," General Kamiya ordered, "While I am gone, Major Hida will be in command. Make sure to assist him as much as you do for me, old friend." He smiled warmly at the doctor and then turned to leave. As he did so, he chanced a glance back in the direction toward the Mount Mihiroshi training camp. _Taichi,_ he thought,_ I know you won't fail me. I'm proud of you son. Be sure to look after your sister._

~*~*~*~

Sora sighed and surveyed the scenery around her. In her opinion, everything always looked nicer from high up. She breathed in the evening air and then leaned back onto the thick branch on the tall tree, resting her head on her hands and propping her legs up onto another branch. She closed her eyes feeling the warmth of the suns rays as it descended to the west. How great it felt just to sit there and enjoy the end of the day... Especially after quite a bit of training. Sure it may have been the easy stuff, but it was still tiring, which made it feel all the more relaxing to be able to just sit and take in the feel of nature around...

Sora frowned, _I wonder how much longer I'm going to have to keep up this act..._ It hadn't even been one whole day yet, and already she had stumbled upon problem after problem. She wasn't sure how much longer her identity would be kept. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to remain calm under pressure. She had Izzy by her side, but she knew she shouldn't rely on him all the time... This was, after all, something she had brought onto herself because of some stupid spontaneous decision. There was no way she'd be able to just back out of it all and go home... though she wished so much to be able to be in her own house with her family right now and with no worries at all.

"The stupid Kirik Clan," she muttered angrily. If it hadn't been for them, none of this would have had to happen. She sighed and then breathed in the freshness of the evening air once more.

"How's the weather up there?"

Upon hearing the familiar commanding voice, Sora whipped her head around so quickly that she shifted her weight on the branch and lost balance. Before she knew it, she felt herself in a familiar scenario- falling out of the tree, bracing herself for the painful fall and then landing in a pair of strong arms... which immediately dropped her to her feet this time.

"You and your sister must have the same love for climbing trees... and then falling out of them," Tai chuckled. For only an instant when he had caught Sora, did he feel a familiarity to the scene, but he immediately dismissed the feeling. It felt too weird to him.

"Sorry to have scared you there, soldier," the brown haired captain chuckled sheepishly.

"Thanks for breaking my fall, Sir," Sora stated hanging her head.

"Is climbing trees really that much fun?" Tai asked looking up.

"You've never climbed a tree before, Captain?" Sora asked.

Tai took a step toward the large plant in front of him. He looked up and then back at his soldier, "The last time I climbed up a tree was to grab my sister's cat, Miko. She went up and didn't know how to come down." He laughed a little, "Kinda like some people."

"Well, it's kinda hard to come back down properly when something unexpected happens each time," Sora muttered sarcastically.

"What was that?" Tai didn't fully expect an answer. He stretched his arms and yawned. For him, it had also been a tiring day. Not just the training part, but all the excitement of preparing for the training camp...

"Uh, n- nothing," Sora said. A thought suddenly came to mind when she sensed the stress from her captain. She no longer felt nervous, instead she smiled at him and beckoned that he follow her, "Come on." She walked to the base of the tree and reached up to the lowest branch.

"What?" Tai followed behind her.

"I wanna show you something," Sora began to ascend the large natural structure one branch at a time. Her movements were stealthy and smooth, from the fact that she had been climbing trees her whole life.

"Show me what?" Tai reached up to the lowest branch like Sora had and began to ascend after her.

"You'll see," Sora smiled. She stopped at the sturdiest branch she had discovered before and stood up steadying herself near the trunk. She then began scooting out slowly so Tai would have enough space to stand next to her.

"Is it just me," Tai pulled himself up to where Sora was standing, "or is this tree a lot bigger when you're actually standing on top of it?" He hugged the trunk a while until he was sure he had his footing, then he let go and scooted out the slightest, not daring to look down.

"You get used to it after a while," Sora chuckled, "You don't know how high a tree can really be until you climb it. You never know what something is like, until you experience it. Now look." She pointed out at the setting sun.

Tai's face softened to a calmer state as he watched the sun slowly duck down into the horizon. It was one of the most incredible scenes he'd ever witnessed. Captivating... entrancing and just... relaxing. He breathed in the fresh evening air, "Wow. That's amazing."

"You see a lot of things differently from up high," Sora said keeping her gaze on the golden red horizon, "That's one of the reason's why I love climbing up trees. It's almost the same as being on top of the world. Everything you see... the scenery... even the air, it's all so much more..." Sora trailed off trying to find the perfect word.

"Majestic?" Tai offered. Chuckling, he added, "You sound like a story book. Pretty corny..." He looked toward Sora as she nodded in response, ignoring the last comment. He caught his breath, for a moment, he thought that he was seeing the figure of the girl he couldn't keep his mind off of.

Sora turned towards her captain and caught his gaze. She looked deep into his chocolate brown eyes and took in the sight of his boyish handsome looks. Feeling a little awkward, though, she knew she had to do something to avert his attention away from her. She waved her hand in front of his face, "Sir. Are you alright?"

Tai shook his head and blinked as he remembered that standing next to him was _not_ the young beauty he had run into a day or two ago, but one of his soldiers. He shook his head, "I'm sorry... I- How much do you and your sister look alike?" Those thoughts of the young girl from the mountain continued to enter his mind.

"We, uh," Sora turned her head away, "Um... Believe it or not, even though we weren't borne of the same mother, we have very, _very_ similar looks." She chuckled nervously and then motioned for Tai to begin descending the tall tree. He complied.

"Her name was Sora, was it?" he asked, "I'd like to meet her someday... uh, to see how much you two really look alike."

Sora nodded in an exasperated way. Fortunately for her, Tai was below her so he couldn't see the look on her face. She sighed inwardly thinking, _That would be impossible._ However, she just faked a cheery tone and said, "Yeah. Maybe you'll get the chance someday. I'm sure she'd like to meet you."

The two landed onto the ground and looked toward the camp. Tai laughed, "I guess falling out really isn't the only way you get down."

"I've tried jumping before," Sora joked, "It works too. However, the landing is pretty hard."

"So, what are you doing out here, anyways?" Tai asked, "All the others are over in the lake."

"I, uh, I didn't feel the need to bathe yet, Sir," Sora lied. Then she looked back toward the horizon and thought of a better excuse, "I wanted to be able to see _that_ on the first day of my stay here at training camp. It always relaxes me after a long day, Captain." _Well, that wasn't a complete lie,_ she thought.

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?," Tai nodded, "We should head back to camp now. The girls will have dinner ready soon." He turned and walked off, but stopped after a couple steps to turn back and say, "Thank you, soldier." He grinned, "And by the way, you don't have to be too formal around me. I don't really like formalities all that much. Just call me Tai."

Sora watched the muscular figure of her captain as he headed back toward the camp. She couldn't help but blush a little bit when she thought of his dreamy face while he was staring out at the setting sun. He wasn't a very rude and strict commander like she expected... He made all the soldiers, especially her, feel warm and welcome. And those deep chocolate brown eyes...

__

Sora, snap out of it, she scolded herself, _You are here for one reason and one reason only. To train and fight your father's battle._ She sighed. It was already bad enough that she was in disguise... it wouldn't be such a great idea to let her mind drift off toward any certain boy... Her heart sank... _Besides, _she thought, _the matchmaker already found me a husband. How convenient..._

____________________________________________________________________

So, here ends another stupid chapter of my life... uh, hold on, I meant my fic. ^^; Heh... yeah. Here ends part 4 of 'Pride and Love.'

What did you think? I think I'm losing my touch... as if I had it in the first place.

Well, anyway, if you liked it though, please tell me. Review. Please!!! My ego is aching for some good reviews.

But anyways, I know I said I wouldn't be too obsessed with the couples thing... I lied. I'm still a Taiora and Kouyako supporter. _AND_ if anyone has any good ideas for a Henry/Rika fic, feel free to let me know. They're my new obsession and I'd like to write a fic over that couple sometime soon. E-mail me at mystical_sakura@hotmail.com for _any_ fic ideas that you don't feel like writing yourself. Maybe I can play ghostwriter and do it for you. ^_^ Heh... just kidding.

Thanx. And don't forget to review.


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